


Revive

by Cpcap83



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Family, Avengers Mansion, Avengers Tower, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Spoilers, Awesome Clint Barton, Awesome Pepper Potts, Awesome Sam Wilson, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Clint Barton Feels, Clint Barton Has Issues, Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Clint Barton Needs a Hug, Clint Barton's Farm, Clint Barton-centric, Dialogue Heavy, Domestic Avengers, F/M, False Memories, Gen, Hurt Clint Barton, Insecure Tony, Memories, Memory Loss, Natasha Romanov Feels, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Nick Fury Feels, Nick Fury Knows All, Nick Fury Swears, Oblivious Steve Rogers, Parent Clint Barton, Parent Tony Stark, Pepper Potts Is a Good Bro, Poor Vision (Marvel), Post - X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Post-Avengers (2012), Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Avengers (2012), Protective Avengers, Protective Clint Barton, Protective Nick Fury, Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Tony Stark, Protective Vision (Marvel), Recovered Memories, SHIELD, Sam Wilson Is a Good Bro, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson Friendship, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, The Avengers Are Good Bros, Tony Angst, Tony Feels, Tony Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Daddy Issues, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, X-Men References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-05-07 04:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 42
Words: 235,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14662869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cpcap83/pseuds/Cpcap83
Summary: COMPLETED!!!!Ten years ago, the World Security Council wiped seven years from every S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Following the data dump of all S.H.I.E.L.D. files by Steve Rodger and Natasha Romanoff onto the internet and the Avengers Civil War, Tony Stark discovers the wipe incident and searches for an explanation. During his search Stark must confront a wrong he committed in the past that has the possibility of bringing together the Avengers once more and destroying the life Clint Barton has worked so hard to protect.





	1. Prologue

Prologue

 

  
“Sir, I don’t understand.”

  
“Understand what Agent? A direct order?”

  
“No sir I understand the order, but a full wipe?” Agent Douglas Addams didn’t make it a habit of questioning orders, especially when they came from someone so high up, but it was a peculiar order never the less, S.H.I.E.L.D was currently working at “full load” which meant everyone was called in. The events of the last two days had resulted in S.H.I.E.L.D escalating the threat level to Code Black, a direct threat to the general population.

  
Many of the agents, including Addams, had been working zealously for over forty-eight hours gathering the necessary intel for the team deployment in an hour. Douglas was the senior system technician on the floor now, which was why his station was within a special tinted glass office overlooking the other system agents on the floor. The glass allowed the senior operative to be able to look out, but no one to look in. Taking the events of the past days into consideration, it didn’t catch Douglas off guard when a member of the World Security Council wandering into his office. He was surprised however when the Councilman didn’t ask for a mission report update but wanted Addams to abandon the vital work in favor for another matter altogether.

  
“You have your orders Agent Addams – please proceed.” Lacking any other option other than to comply with the command, the agent’s hands went to the keyboard and typed the required sequence of codes. The Councilman was watching the process for the sole purpose of ensuring that the task was completed, not how it was done. This oversight did not go unnoticed by the technician, he was suddenly in survival mode. He wasn’t in this fight just for himself but for every agent around the world. Quickly before hitting the last key that would activate the given order. Addams punched in an additional six keys then hit the final button that would change everything.

  
A second past, then another. Addams blinked a few times and turned away from the computer and surveyed his surroundings. An older man in a gray suit stood before him. Panic flashed in the agent’s eyes once he recognized who the gentleman was. The councilman couldn’t hide the smile of amusement as the agent stumbled to get to his feet. “Sir, apologizes. I didn’t know you were there. How may I help you?” Douglas turned slightly and caught sight of his computer monitor seeing an open data coding screen processing. Returning his attention to the Council member he could see past him to the beehive of activity that was occurring down below. While he could not hear anything that was being said on the floor he could see the system analysts were in distress. Using all the variables available and applying them to the equation, Agent Addams deduced what had happened. They had been wiped.

  
The smile left the Councilman’s face as he turned his attention to retrieving an item from his suit jacket. “Dismissed agent.” Addams didn’t need to be told twice, he needed to inform his superiors immediately of the Council’s actions. Agent Addams never made it out of the tinted office. As soon as his back was turned, a bullet went through his skull. Returning the gun to his pocket the Councilman went into his pants pocket for his cellphone. Looking around the room to confirm his solitude his thumb traveled to a button on the cellphone and pressed it. Raising the phone to his ear he knew that there would not be any greeting or even an acknowledgment. The man waited until he was sure he had established a connection and spoke “It’s done”.


	2. Chapter One ~ Head Injuries?

Chapter One

 

“What was I just saying?”

“No clue. What happened to your arm?”

Clint Barton looked down and noticed that his right arm was in a sling. He also recognized a familiar pain in his chest. After a quick assessment, he concludes that he had no less than three cracked ribs with the possibility of at least one of the three being broken. Looking at the woman in front of him, Natasha Romanoff, he saw bandages on her forehead and collarbone. The redhead’s green eyes had a look that he had seen multiple times before which never ended well for him. She was judging the situation and evaluating the threat level. Deciding to get ahead of her assumptions he offered in a joking manner, “Maybe we both have head injuries. It wouldn’t be the first time”

Natasha stared at him for a moment not finding anything amusing about their current situation and countered his offer. “Would we both be just walking around here if we had a head injury bad enough to affect our memories?”

“Well” he paused “it is you and me so it is highly possible that we just walked out of medical against orders. Again – not the first time. You know as well as I do if it’s really that bad they will find us. They always do.”

As if on cue, Agent Phil Coulson rounded the corner of the hallway towards the agents. The impact of his polished shoes against the titled floor caused a sound to echo through the empty hall that Clint could only compare to the Jaws’ theme. Never looking at either of them or breaking his stride, he stared ahead. It was only when he passed by and put some distance between himself and the agents he called over his shoulder “Romanoff, Barton, my office now”. Phil was their handler. He wasn’t the first but the only one that could keep Romanoff and Barton in line and alive. He was responsible for selecting which missions they went on, what they did during the missions, and their recovery from any injuries sustained from the missions.

The last responsibility was the bane of Phil’s existence. Neither one of the members of Strike Team Delta openly reported any injuries, often believing that in-the-field medical treatments were “good enough” or taking the “walk it off” approach. When injuries were detected by either himself or the injury was too obvious to conceal, persuading either of the agents to receive medical treatment was often a challenge. Director Fury had gone as far as to have it added to Clint’s medical profile that he is to be restrain in a hospital bed, and when possible kept under heavy sedation anytime he was in medical. This was a result of numerous complaints about injuries the medical staff obtained while providing medical care to Barton. It became so bad that doctors would refuse to even assess a broken toe on Barton without him being sedated.

Standing at his office door, Agent Coulson waited until both Natasha and Clint were inside before closing it. Watching as they passed by him he made a mental checklist of the visual injuries the agents had. It seemed with his brief inspection that whatever happened they had received treatment. That was good enough for now. Broken bones, bumps and bruises were the least of their problems currently. While the situation was high enough that Fury had ordered “full load”, which some reason was already in place. The agency could afford a few days of recovery time for Clint and Natasha. Whatever had happened could result in the need for their specific skill sets. S.H.I.E.L.D needed them at their peak performance level for whatever was going to happen. Taking his time making his way to the desk chair Agent Coulson debated the best way to start the conversation. Politely gesturing to his agents that they should sit down in the chairs across from him he decided to be honest and blunt.

“What year is it?” he asked.

Natasha and Clint looked at each other and back to their handler. The question being posed to them seemed to all but confirm Clint’s earlier assumptions. Natasha and he had been injured somehow and in addition to their visual injuries suffered some sort of head trauma as well. They probably went to medical for treatment and left. Someone in medical got butthurt that they left without authorization and tattled on them to Phil. And here they were…

“Listen Coulson, I don’t know what they told you, but Nat and I…”

“What year is it?” Phil repeated cutting off Clint’s lame attempt at an excuse.

Natasha decided to answer the question cause unlike Clint she did have an evident head injury and while she didn’t know how bad it was, the latest edition of “Clint vs. Phil” was causing her head pains to spread to behind her eyeballs. She propped her left elbow on the chair’s arm and rested her head in her hand looking towards the wall “2001 and do you have any Advil?”

Opening the desk draw to his right Phil fished around for the requested item. “No on the year, yes to the meds”. He threw the bottle across the desk to Nat which she caught with her right hand without even turning from the wall. Closing the desk draw Phil bluntly stated,“It’s 2008”.


	3. Chapter Two ~ Caller Unknown

Chapter Two

 

“So, I’ll just be taking my runner up prize of this brand-new sling” Clint declared pointing to his injured arm, “calling bullshit on the whole situation and taking my broken ass home”. With that statement left hanging in the air Clint hauled himself out of the chair and made his way to the door. He was almost there when Phil stopped him with a simple question.

“And where exactly would that be Agent Barton?”

“What?” Clint asked turning to Phil.

Coulson rephrased his question “Where do you live?”

“Why? Do you want to come over and watch the game later?” Clint was trying his best attempt of sounding light, like nothing was wrong but internally Phil’s question had him freaking out. He had no idea where home was. The worst thing was that Clint didn’t feel any pain in his head. While most of the time that is a good thing, wouldn’t his head be bothering him if he was hurt so bad that it prompted memory loss? Perhaps he was still under the influence of whatever they gave him in medical and it was blocking the pain and recall abilities. That revaluation didn’t comfort Clint any better, knowing that as soon as the medication wore off he was probably going to be in a world of hurt.

Clint gathered that if he could just keep talking then the information would come back to him. That was it – just keep talking. It’s a head injury, he just needed to wait it out until the meds left his system. He was just about to start up again with some smartass remarks when his cell phone rang. Pulling it out of his pocket, a piece of paper fell onto the floor, bending down to retrieve it, he read the caller ID: **Laura – Home**. Unfolding the paper to see if perhaps it held some clues he inhaled sharply. It was a sonogram.

Showing it to Nat and Phil, Clint answer the phone cautiously on the third ring. “Hello?”

“Hey, sorry to interrupt you at work. I know you are busy finishing things up before tomorrow. I just wanted to confirm plans before I went to bed”. The woman’s voice that he assumed was Laura, hastily said.

Clint was processing a lot in very little time. The sonogram confirmed Phil’s story about the year since a date was printed clearly under the name Barton in the top left corner. “Tomorrow?” Phil was typing away at his computer. Obviously trying to get information to help Clint out.

“Please don’t tell me that another mission came up. We have been planning this for weeks. You promised that you would be home this weekend to help. The nursery needs to be painted, the crib is still in a box, plus Cooper really misses you.”

“Copper misses me and I promised to be home this weekend.” Clint was repeating the information for his audience in the office. Phil turned his monitor around so Clint could see. He recognized as one of the SH.I.E.L.D. sub personnel file. Everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D had a personnel file as with any employer, but only a select few agents had a sub file that was encrypted. Only certain people had the clearance level to access such information. Clint even as a level seven agent would not have the clearance needed to access his own file. Such a setup was the closest thing that S.H.I.E.L.D had to “off the record”. While he could identity his own picture on the screen the two others, who were probably the reason for the sub file, were a mystery. There was a picture of a woman with the name Laura Mitchel Barton captioned under it with a hyphen following the name and the word WIFE. The second picture was of a toddler captioned with Cooper Francis Barton – SON. Clint felt pure fear. He didn’t have any idea who these people were, and he was able to understand enough of the situation to assume that there would soon be another picture added to the file.

Phil never changed his expression during the phone conversation. He had a poker face that many would sell their own mother to be able to imitate. He tapped on a section on the screen to draw Clint’s attention to it. It was a set of coordinates. Phil clicked on the numbers and a map appeared which a location was clearly marked by a blue dot. Clint leaned in closer to get a look.

“Iowa!?” Clint couldn’t keep the disgust out of his voice. He grew up in Iowa, it was not fun times. All the places in the world to pick for settling down, he picked the location of the first act of the shitshow that would become his life?

“Clint? Are you alright?” Laura asked.

Clint shook his head in his latest attempt of mental recall without success. “Yeah…I’m good. You know me, just a bit banged up from a mission.” He suddenly wondered about his arm and ribs. What the hell happened? Hopefully he gave as good as he got. However, in the grand scheme of things that wasn’t important right now. Looking at Phil he mouthed “tomorrow?” Phil nodded. He had already decided to approve recovery leave for both Natasha and Clint in preparation for whatever would happen next. Clint continued “Yeah, I’ll be home tomorrow. I don’t know how much of the chore list I will be able to do. I busted a few ribs, but I’ll give it a go.”

There was a heavy sigh on the other end. Clint may not remember his wife but he sure as hell remember that sound. He has had the privilege of being on the receiving end of it numerous times in his life. It was the sound of a female frustrated with Clint Barton. “Did you even bother to ask Natasha if she wanted to visit?”

That got Clint’s attention. If he was going to this shitshow then at least he gets a plus one. Looking right at Natasha, Clint started in on his lie. “Of course, I invited Natasha. She is excited to come out and see you. She has a few bumps and bruises but between the two of us we should be able to knock off what needs to be done. Just pick us up tomorrow at the airport please. Once I have a flight number I’ll send it to you.” While Clint was mentally congratulating himself on how smooth he sounded, Natasha was softly cursing in Russian. He knew that should explain to Laura about the memory loss, but seriously, how do you explain to your wife that you have “lost” the last seven years which must have included meeting, marrying and producing one and a half kids with her? Hallmark definitely missed that target demographic.

His train of thought was broken by the sound of a child crying in the background. Something in the pit of Clint’s soul screamed out. His mind had no idea who these people were, but his heart knew the sound of his son.

“Okay hon, we will see you tomorrow. I’m looking for… Cooper stop… Hush… Okay one minute... I swear he acts like he doesn’t even know who I am. Love you. Bye.” Clint has never been so happy for someone to hang up on him. It saved him the awkwardness of having to respond to Laura’s “love you”. He found himself thinking back to the comments made just moments ago about Cooper’s behavior towards his mother.

Clint glanced at the sonogram one more time before refolding it. He shoved the photo and phone back into his pocket as he mumbled to himself, “like father like son.”


	4. Chapter Three ~ The Wipe

Chapter Three

 

“Everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D has been wiped?” Natasha asked. Even as highly trained as she was to adapt to any event thrown at her, the surprise was clear in her question.

Phil nodded, at this point Maria Hill had joined them. Director Fury was out in the field when the crisis had occurred. He was currently on his way back to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in Washington D.C. Having a higher level of clearance and a firmer grasp of what was happening than Phil, she could explain the situation better. They had agents running data of possible outcomes of the entire S.H.I.E.L.D organization being crippled for no apparent reason. None of the results were promising. Director Fury had assigned Agent Hill to fill in the two senior mission operatives in case the situation became hostile and their “skills” were needed for containment. “Everyone from Fury to the pool cleaner at the gym doesn’t have any memories from 2001 to today.”

“So,” Clint interjected, “at any point in time you guys can just push a button to fry our brains making us forget everything.” He waited for a response and didn’t receive one so continued. “That’s just lovely. Did we agree to that or is it just part of the sign on bonus?”

Hill looked at Clint with a face that easily conveyed her annoyance with his interpretation. “When someone joins S.H.I.E.L.D they are required to participate in numerous screenings and assessments. The biggest one being the medical evaluation. During part of the evaluation the agent is put under and a cognitive recalibration unit is implanted on the prefrontal cortex within the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The agent does sign an agreement prior to the surgery, but of course, the patient is ‘wiped’ once the procedure and recovery are completed. We can’t have our employees walking around paranoid that their memories could be erased at any moment. Plus, the initial wipe is more of a ‘test’ to ensure the implant is functioning correctly.”

Clint stared into the coffee cup that he had been given upon Hill’s entrance wishing it would magically refill before his eyes. “No, you surely can’t have that, now can you?”

“Think of it as a reset button for the brain. We deal in the world of spies and information. A lot of the latter is highly sensitive and a matter of world safety. To ensure the security of said information we occasionally must reduce the amount of people privy to it.”

It was Natasha’s turn to interrupt, “Even if that includes the people who risked their asses to retrieve the information?”

Without blinking Hill looked right at Natasha “Almost exclusively. Information can’t be interrogated out of you if you don’t know it.”

“Cause telling the nice torturer that I don’t know is a sure-fire way to get them to stop beating me”. Clint added dryly. He leaned back in his chair and rolled his eyes at Natasha.

Maria wasn’t going to take the bait. “Sometimes we do it to protect our agents. You two know better than most that there are plenty of tough calls made out in the field. Sometimes the actions and consequences of those calls follow the person home. Prior to the launch of the wiping program we had a seventeen percent suicide rate among our field agents. The last audit conducted just a few months ago now has us at three percent.”

Sitting up Clint placed his empty cup on the desk and stood. “I have just two questions, why did this happened and how many times have you had to wipe me?”

Clint could have sworn he saw Coulson crack a brief smile but when he looked again to confirm it Phil was back to what Clint liked to call “The Gambler” mode. Natasha’s face was expressionless to anyone who didn’t know her, but he did and knew that she was wondering the same things. Maria looked to Phil and arched her perfectly manicured eyebrow. This was her signal for Phil to take over. He understood her signal and accepted the responsibility, “The only entity that can authorize a full organizational wipe is the World Security Council. They answer to no one. Director Fury will be meeting with the W.S.C. as soon as possible requesting an explanation, but it is highly doubtful one will be offered. We can only assume that they had a valid reason to do so. The only option now is to move forward. This wipe has occurred and there is nothing that can change that. We must now just be prepared. A situation like this is unprecedented. There is no way for us to predict the fallout of this many people being affected. Missions have been compromised. Agents who were in deep cover are dead now because of this. We predict it will take a few days for the full impact to show, so I suggest, no I order you two to take this time for recovery from your injuries. Be back Tuesday at the latest and be ready for anything.”

There was nothing left to do. Phil was right. There wasn’t any way for them to know what would happen next. Clint and Natasha dialed back their anger about the whole thing, but there were numerous agents within the organization who would not. Fury, Hill and Coulson were in for an all-nighter of planning how to react to the actions of thousands of angry agents. It was easy to assume that there would be a lot of resignations over this mess. Clint could empathize with that.

Clint pushed the whole thing out of mind. Dealing with the aftermath was “Tuesday Clint’s” problem. He had a few days off and a wife and son to get reacquainted with. Perhaps he would find an opportunity to talk to Laura and be honest about everything. On second thought, the “fake it till you make it” plan was sounding like the better option.

Natasha gestured to Clint for them to leave. They had a flight to catch once it was booked. There was an entire department in S.H.I.E.L.D. for the sole purpose of travel arrangements. All that was needed to be said was when and where, and a ticket appeared. Clint and Natasha quickly said their goodbyes. Together the two Strike Team Delta agents walked towards the door. Natasha was the first person through it and as Clint had one foot over the threshold Phil casually threw his last comment at Clint, “And to answer question number two, more than you would want to know. Have a great weekend Barton.” Clint never looked back, he just nodded his head and over his shoulder extended his middle finger.

Once they were both in the hallway again Natasha glanced at her watch. “It’s 11:30 now, how long does it take to get out to Iowa?”

Clint answered as he took off walking. “The map shows my place about two hours northeast of Cedar Rapids. The flight itself is under four hours if we can get a nonstop.”

Nat matched his pace and the two took off to the travel department. “What’s wrong? You just answered my question without any stupid jokes or remarks.”

He stopped and turned to Nat. He wouldn’t look her in the eyes. He focused at an area off past her right shoulder. “I’m sure I’m a dick husband. Which makes me not even want to think about what kind of father I am.”

“Well you can be a dick, not going to argue with you about that one. When you are, there tends to be some sound sense behind it. Why don’t you think you’re a good husband and father?”

“Other than not remembering them?”

“Other than that. There is a very simple explanation for that one.”

Clint could not help but laugh at that statement. “Simple? If you call me allowing the government to do brain surgery on me for the sole purpose of erasing it when they believe it is warranted, then for Christmas I’m getting you a dictionary. That aside, the other reason is because she is picking us up from the airport.”

It’s not often that Natasha is speechless, but she decided to go easy on herself given the conditions. “Because she’s offering us a ride?”

“Yeah, what kind of husband does that? The airport is two hours away. That’s a four-hour roundtrip that she’s doing pregnant and with a toddler. It sounds pretty shitty to me.”

“Or perhaps you are such a great husband and father that she is excited to see you. Try being an optimist for once.” Natasha noticed that Clint seemed to relax a bit at her last comment. She knew he had demons from his childhood whose reappearance were probably prompted by the extremely sore topic of husbands and fathers. She wondered how many times they have had this conversation. How many times had Clint’s confidence taken a beaten leaving her to pick him up again? Blue eyes met her green ones. She could tell he was tired and scared. Natasha knew that he was never one to shrink away from a challenge, so he would take this one on and overcome his demons.  

 


	5. Chapter Four ~ Apologies

Chapter Four

 

 

Ten Years Later

 

 

“It’s not a bribe!”

“Tony, you show up to my house unannounced with a brand-new tractor and a puppy! How is that not a bribe.” Clint hollered as he made his way to his workbench in the barn. Tony Stark had arrived approximately ten minutes ago in a three-piece suit looking as if he was about to present the annual stock report to shareholders. Stark had magically appeared in the gravel driveway. The archer had no idea how Tony had gotten to the farm. He didn’t see any mode of transportation, but this was Tony Stark, so just because it could not be seen didn’t mean it wasn’t there. The numerous alarms that were set up to warn of approaching visitors didn’t go off either, that was something Clint would have to investigate later. The last time that he had seen Tony was when they were separated by a thick pane of glass at the Raft prison two years ago. Heated words were exchanged during that time, but Clint have mellowed greatly in the time apart. Especially since he believed Tony played a significant role in him being granted house arrest instead of being thrown back in jail for his part in the Avengers’ “Civil War” as the media dubbed it.

Tony really didn’t like having to explain himself, but he would if it resulted in him getting what he wanted. “It’s not a bribe because I don’t want anything from you. I just want you to have a nice tractor and a guard dog once he gets older. Which may I add you are in desperate need of. Do you know how easy it was for me to get on your property? It would also be swell if you could just forget the last two years and let me off the hook to the unfortunate remarks I said to you within earshot of Secretary Ross.”

“That is wanting something. Look, Tony, when I brought you all here during the whole Ultron mess, what was the first thing I said?”

Tony looked off into the distance trying to recall an event from almost four years ago. “I want to say that you said, ‘honey I’m home’. A bit too 1950’s for me, but who the hell am I to argue with the classics?”

A voice called from the haystack that was piled up towards the back of the barn. “Uncle Tony said a bad word! He has to pay a dollar!” Clint had forgotten Lila was there. She was so excited when Tony arrived and presented her with the dog. Clint was so angry at the impromptu visit, he didn’t even invite Tony into the house, just brought him into the barn for a talk. Lila had followed with the promise to behave and to let the grownups speak. He didn’t know until they arrived that Lila had brought the puppy with her. Laura must be having fun up at the house keeping the boys away from the barn.

Exchanging a quick glare with Tony, Clint shouted up to his daughter, “He’s not your uncle. You call him Mr. Stark, and he won’t say anymore bad words. Why don’t you go up to the house and let your brothers have a turn with the puppy?” He didn’t want to disclose it to Tony, but Clint had been begging Laura since Lila was little to get a dog without success. Now that the dog was here, Laura wouldn’t be able to pry the animal from the children, or him.

Tony placed his hand over his heart in a mocked gesture of offense, “If she feels that she needs to call me Uncle Tony then I think she should be able to. Clint you need to let your daughter feel her feelings.” Knowing that Clint was perhaps three seconds away from punching Tony for his last remark about parenting, he called the child over. “Sweetie come on down here”.

Lila climbed down with the puppy held under her arm from the haystack with the grace of a ballerina despite never wanting to participate in the activity much to the chagrin of Natasha. She skipped over to Tony excited to be included in the conversation. He kneeled to be at her level and reached into his jacket pocket to retrieve a wallet. “So, it’s a dollar a bad word, right?”, and handed her a fifty-dollar bill. “Here’s fifty because it’s going to be a long day. Your daddy is being a stubborn hawkass to Uncle Tony.” Clint stepped forward, this time he was going to hit Tony. Tony looked back to the girl and continued, “that is two bad words, I have forty-eight to go. That’s called subtraction.” Patting the girl on the head twice, he took his attention away from her and gave it to her father, “See Clint I’m teaching her. I can be a positive influence on children.”

Clint shook his head and shoed the child away happily with the cash held tightly in one hand and her new furry friend in the other. Once he knew she was far enough away, Clint watched Tony start to fiddle with tools laid out on the workbench. It was apparent from the millionaire’s clumsy handling of the items before him, Tony was anxious.  While Clint didn’t appreciate Tony using his daughter as an awkward buffer, he was pleased to know that he was able to intimidate the Ironman.

“I said ‘Fury helped me set this up when I joined S.H.I.E.L.D and kept it off the record and I would like to keep it that way.’ That was my way of trusting you with my deepest and most treasured secret. I did that because you were my friend. What did you do? When you were given the first opportunity, you gave them up! You gave up the little girl that you want to call you Uncle Tony. You gave up my son who looks up to you and wants to invent things just like you do. You gave up the three-year-old that you have never met and has his whole life ahead of him. You gave up the woman who offered you sanctuary when you needed it because you created a murder bot. You didn’t even bat an eye. You were mad and hit where you knew it would hurt me. Guess what? It did. It hurt like hell. I was stuck in some cell miles under water losing my mind because I didn’t know if my family was safe or not.”

Tony’s attention to a hammer was broken by that. He didn’t know what to say. What can a person say when all their sins are laid out like that? All that can be done is to own it. Placing the hammer back down he turned to the marksman, “I messed up - there are you happy? You’re right, I was mad. No one knew if Rhodes was going to survive and if he did what the condition he would wake up in. You were already gone and enjoying your retirement. Hell, I was even trying to hang the suit up. Let the younger kids take over. We still don’t know where Banner and Thor are, but I’m sure they will show up sooner or later. We weren’t together, but we weren’t apart, you get me?” 

 Clint nodded, “We weren’t avenging but we were friends.”

“Exactly! I didn’t think the Sokovia Accords were going to be that big of a deal. Everyone who was active just had to sign the first draft that had a clause for the document to be revised with input from us within a year. Everything Rogers and the others didn’t like would’ve been fixed. The United Nations needed something – anything, to take the weight of the Avengers’ collateral damage off them and plus it was good PR for us.”

“What are you doing now? Is this the Tony Stark version of a reunion tour? Is everyone getting a visit and explanation of the inner workings of your mind, or is it just me?”

Kicking one of the tires on the recently replaced tractor Tony answered, “Rhodes and Vision have to listen to me every day about this. Rogers, Wilson, Romanoff and Maximoff are off secretly avenging” He placed the last two words in air quotes with an eyeroll, “I know where they are. They aren’t keeping it a huge secret and they are doing alright. Sometimes they get the bad guys and sometimes they don’t. If it wasn’t just the three of them and sometimes Wanda, I would swear Hydra had an inside man. They’re still out there fighting the good fight.” He added with a sly smile that disappeared when Clint gave Tony the ‘wrap it up’ cue with his index finger and proceeded with his testimony. “I really don’t know Scott, but he seemed cool. Got a kid himself you know? I made sure he made it home to her. He got a similar deal as you did, however not nearly as nice. While you have 160 acres to be restricted to, he has a two-bedroom apartment and roommates fattening him up with waffles. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, this whole thing snowballed out of control and I’m sorry for my part in that.”

“So, you thought if you got me on board with your apology then everyone else would follow? We could just forget the stupid, put the last two years out of mind and move on?” Clint concluded.

Tony looked at Clint with puppy dog eyes, “What do you say Hawkass?”

“Listen, I don’t care about the Accords. I didn’t then, really don’t now. Before you start in on me, I’m not trying to excuse my way out of what went down, but honestly, Steve just asked me to pick up Wanda and Scott and get them to the airport. Once we got there, everything changed. So, I say if that was your apology then I guess I accept it… Ironshit.” Tony stepped towards the archer to hug him, Clint put his hand up to stop him and shook his head, “Nope, we’re not like that,”

Tony left his arms out since he didn’t know what to do with the refusal of his affections. After a moment he pulled his hands together making an audible ‘clap’ and released the breath he didn’t know he was holding. “So, I do want something.”

Clint threw his head back and let out a groan. “I knew it!”

“I need your help with some S.H.I.E.L.D files. The ones that Romanoff and Rogers dumped on the www years ago. You remember that incident, right?” Clint grunted in acknowledgement. It was hard to forget something like that. “Well there are some interesting reads from about ten years ago that I need someone who was there at the time to help me sort.”

That whole event still gave Clint nightmares. What Natasha and Steve did with the data dump was nothing compared to the “2008 Full Load Wipe” as agents called it. In fact, the wiping indirectly led to the data dump. In all the confusion that was caused, HYDRA took advantage of the chaos to place their people within S.H.I.E.L.D. There were still some within the agency that believed the dump didn’t eliminate all the enemy agents. Clint was one of the subscribers to that belief, and it really didn’t help with his trust issues. Clint offered, “This wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that there are S.H.I.E.L.D files from ten years ago, but nothing from eleven to seventeen years ago?”

“That’s the thing Barton, there is.”


	6. Chapter Five ~ Off The Record

Chapter Five

 

“You just find yourself injured without any knowledge of how it happened?” Tony asked as Clint placed a cup of coffee in front of him. The men had made their way back to the house and begged Laura to take the kids somewhere. The conditions of house arrest where very simple, stay at the house. Clint had an ankle monitor that was state of the art because of who he was. The government was also kind enough to bestow upon him four guards to watch his every move. In the beginning they were constantly on him, the guard detail following room to room changing out every twelve hours. In the two years they had been there they had let up a lot and had become family friends, even on occasion helping with some of the work around the homestead. He still didn’t like them being there, but at least they weren’t total assholes.

Clint sat down opposite Tony at the kitchen table with his own cup. “Yup, dislocated shoulder and some banged up ribs. Back in those days that was called ‘Thursday’, so being hurt wasn’t anything concerning to me, but…”

Tony interrupted, “Not knowing anything did?” Since the data dump Tony had been combing through the files more as a hobby than anything else. The files discarded were everywhere on the internet. Anyone with a decent encryption file on their hard drive was able to access it. He didn’t like the enemies of the Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D.  having information that he did not. The mind wipe ten years ago took time for him to find out about since S.H.I.E.L.D never referred to the event in any of the reports afterwards. It was a dirty little secret that the agency went to great lengths to keep hidden. However, once he found out about the secret he unearthed one of his own that reemerged from the darkness that Tony referred to as the 80’s. When Tony exposed it, he created a program that filtered the files. The filtering system became the foundation of the investigation. He needed help. Tony had been looking for a reason to speak to Clint for a while now and the discovery he came across a few days ago motivated him to act. “So how did that work with all this?” he questioned as he waved his arms around the room.

“Honestly not great in the beginning. Laura and I had only been married for three years. Cooper was barely three himself and Lila was more than eager to make her debut at any time. I made Nat come with me here, so I would have backup. I attempted to fake it for a while and by ‘a while’ I mean maybe half a day. Laura, well you’ve met her, she knew something was wrong with us. By dinner I was confessing everything.”

“How did she take it?”

“Surprisingly well.  She didn’t miss a beat. She pulled out some photos and told stories, it was great.” Letting out a small chuckle, “It was almost like I was there. Cooper didn’t handle it well though.” It was still hard for Clint to explain it. He had heard that children are highly receptive to adult emotions and body language. The archer thought at the time, and since looking back, that he did a decent show of hiding his emotions during that unpleasant incident. Somehow Cooper picked up on a trace of something, that was the only reason Clint could come up with for how his son acted for the first few weeks afterwards. “Like I said, he was only a toddler at the time, but his behavior was strange. He wouldn’t go near Laura and only wanted me. She told me that it was because I hadn’t been home in a while and he missed me. Even after I left to get back to S.H.I.E.L.D he was standoffish with her. I guess he picked up on me seeing Laura as a stranger and copied it. He stopped by the time I got back for Lila.”

That was very interesting to Tony, Cooper was a good kid. The boy had quickly become a target of Tony’s probing into files on the internet in the past days, but now wasn’t the time to open that Pandora’s box. Tony had as of today only met the eldest Barton offspring twice, but he seemed to be a smart kid with the promise of perhaps being a decent human being when he got older, which in the grand scheme of things is all you can hope for with this generation. Clint’s earlier comments about Cooper’s infatuation with him didn’t go unnoticed and Tony had already made a mental note to send some tech stuff to encourage the young inventor’s passion. “And S.H.I.E.L.D? How did it function afterwards?”

“We lost a lot of good people. There were agents in deep cover that with the wipe forgot their mission objectives and cover story. Most of them were killed, if you ask me they were the lucky ones.” Tony gave Clint a puzzling look but allowed him to continue without commenting. “The undercover agents that weren’t killed concluded that they were enemy agents and stayed on with the enemy. I have been unfortunate enough to meet some in my assignments around this big blue marble of ours. Others handed in their notice and left the agency behind. S.H.I.E.L.D is nothing if not resilient, when knocked down they pull themselves up by the bootstraps and keep going. It wasn’t overnight, but we got there with acceptable lost.” Knowing that Tony was going to interject on that last part, Clint quickly added, “Even with all the horrible things that happened, it could have been a lot worst.”

The two Avengers sat in a comfortable silence drinking their coffee. Tony studied Clint’s face, it was apparent that the man was lost in thought about what he had just disclosed. He had never really spent too much time thinking about Clint outside of work. He knew about the family, but how much did he really know about the man? During his research into the memory wipe and the events beforehand Tony had found that he may know more about Clint’s life in the 2000’s than the man himself did. While the memory wipe was a known event for any agents around during it, there were things that the higher ups kept from the employees. The most important in Tony’s opinion was that all the files in the S.H.I.E.L.D database were also wiped. That meant that there wasn’t any official documentation of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s activities from 2001 until 2008. Since Clint already told Tony that he knew there weren’t any S.H.I.E.L.D records for those seven years, it was easy to assume that Clint was one of the few in the “know”.

“You were telling me as we were coming up to the house about how you found out about Laura after the wipe. That was a very lucky coincidence for you.” Clint threw a questionable look. He knew Tony was trying to imply something without just coming out and saying it. The whole song and dance was never Clint’s thing, but he was giving Tony some slack.  “I mean imagine if she didn’t call at that precise moment. You would have been in the doghouse for not showing up that weekend and maybe missed the birth of your daughter.”

Clint replied remorsefully, “I did miss my daughter’s birth.” A father shouldn’t miss the birth of any child, but the birth of his only daughter still stung. “Nat and I were out on a mission cleaning up after the wipe. We were on radio silence due to the sensitive nature of the assignment for a week. Once we were on the chopper heading back to headquarters Coulson called and told me she was here. Lila came two days early, if she just waited ten hours... but that girl has never done what she was told to.”

Tony responded with a forced laugh, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. It had been years since he had heard Phil Coulson’s name. He would never admit it out loud, but he missed the stable presence of the S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Tony wondered what Coulson would say if he saw the Avengers in the state they were in today. It probably would have broken his heart, he was the driving force behind the formation of the group and had faith in them. Phil Coulson was a soldier and when he fought it was with everything he had. Tony had never seen Coulson in the field but following his death, Thor shared a story about his adventures in New Mexico and Phil’s role had impressed Tony. Of course, that wasn’t the best part of the story, that was when Thor was asked a question about something that happened there, and he was unable to answer. Clint interjected with the answer. It turned out that Clint had been on “hammer watch” down there and almost took Thor out in mortal form with an arrow to the head, the only reason it didn’t happen was because Coulson retracted the order at the last minute. This time the smile did reach his eyes, remembering how the group banded together to tease Thor about how close he came to the business end of one of Hawkeye’s famous arrows. 

Now it was Clint’s turn to watch Tony lost in thought. “Tony, I know you are here about the wipe. The apology was just a way to get in the door. What do you want to ask me?”

Studying the open shelves that separated the kitchen from the living room Tony wondered if the variety of colored glass containers were family heirlooms or if someone had an obsession for collecting it. He was stalling and both he and Clint knew it. “Did you ever wonder why your personnel file was the way it was? Everything was wiped going back seven years, but your file was perfectly intact. It had your home location, a wife of two years, and a one-year old son. Do the math. None of that should have been in there.”

Without even hesitating Clint answered, “It was my private sub personnel file. Whoever did the wipe didn’t know it was there. It was off the record.”

“See that’s the problem here. You keep throwing ‘off the record’ around and I don’t really think you know what that phrase means Clint. ‘Off the record’ means there is no record of it.” Pulling out his Stark Pad Tony pulled up a screen and showed Clint. It was the “off the record” file that they had been talking about. “See – record.”

“There had to be some documentation of my family. If anything happened to me, S.H.I.E.L.D needed to know who to send my pension and insurance to. Only two people Fury and Hill, three if you count yourself, have access to it. It is called being responsible.” Clint stated in a matter of fact way.

“Yeah you are really responsible. I caught that while going through your information for the past seventeen years. You have always been sure to take care of the people who matter to you in case you never made it home one day. You know who you remind me of – Cap. You and he are cut from the same cloth you know. You two must be good friends.  I wonder if you still would be if he found out you didn’t offer to help when he needed it?”

Clint didn’t like where this was going, it was getting dangerously close to sounding like Tony was suggesting that he was a coward for taking the home arrest offer and leaving the others to be fugitives. It was a sore subject for him despite having no regrets about the decision.  “Steve understands I could not be on the run with a family back at home. We parted on good terms.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about, but I’m happy to hear that you guys are good. No, I was talking about how Rogers would never take a dime from me for personal use. Especially when I offered to put him up in a ‘luxury apartment in the sky’ over in Brooklyn. You know he has always wanted to go back to his old stomping grounds.  You on the other hand, he may have taken up on the offer.”

Tony was dangling a carrot hoping Clint would take the bait. Admitting to himself that he was curious about what Tony was getting at, he took it. “What the hell are you talking about? I get a pretty decent pension from S.H.I.E.L.D., but not nearly nice enough to be adding to my real estate holdings.”

Returning to the Stark Pad Tony swiped a few times and placed it before Clint. “Bedford-Stuyvesant Apartments, built in 1932 in Brooklyn, New York, current owner – one Clinton Francis Barton.” Touching the pad to swipe to the next frame he continued, “that is your signature on the deed correct? Dated Wednesday, October 6, 2004.”

Clint leaned in to study the document. Shaking his head in disbelief, “I have no idea about this honestly, but yes, that is my signature. I did live at that building when I was younger and stationed with S.H.I.E.L.D in the city.”

In his best game show host impression Tony said, “But wait, there’s more!” Then changed back into his normal voice, “You apparently before the wipe knew what ‘off the record’ meant because this building isn’t anywhere in your files or anything S.H.I.E.L.D has on you. Like I mentioned, you take care of people. There was an account set up to collect rent, pay bills, and miscellaneous odds and ends. It’s still active today.” Tony reached over the tablet to touch it again to show Clint the account information. “You even had a will to ensure everyone including your tenants were alright if anything happened to you. It was last updated in March of 2008, again ‘off the record’.” Tony leaned back into his chair, “And that my newly reestablished best friend is where things get…interesting… for both you and me.”

“That was two months before the wipe. What is so interesting about it and how does it involve you?”

Tony was again back to the tablet and with a few more swipes changed the world as Clint knew it, or remembered it forever, “It’s interesting because you left everything to a Katherine Elizabeth Bishop-Barton.”


	7. Chapter Six ~ Sharing

Chapter Six

 

“Who the hell is Katherine Bishop? Let me see that.” Clint demanded picking up the Stark Pad.

 “Wipe” was too broad of a term for Tony’s liking. The technology that would be required for thousands of people to have a specific timespan erased did not exist currently, and certainly not the twenty or thirty years ago when the S.H.I.E.L.D implants were initiated. The memories were still contained within the brain, the person affected just didn’t have access to it. The implant was merely, in layman terms – a lock and storage system.  To further complicate the situation, each time the device was stimulated to do a wipe, a different key was used. The research that he had conducted led him to the conclusion that while the wipe was permanent without some type of “key”, there was a possibility for something to be triggered. The information recovered didn’t support remembering a wiped event, but a trigger could have the capability to make the person feel a since of déjà vu. The effectiveness of the device came from the fact that there wasn’t a known key for the lock. While Tony would have gladly accepted the challenge to find the key for the specific 2008 Full Load Wipe, there were more than a few ethical dilemmas involved with any reversal effort. The wiping had resulted in the deaths of many and endangered international security which may have indirectly led to the deaths of thousands more around the world. The lives that were not ended were forever changed. Any interfering with undoing the implant system could cause similar results. S.H.I.E.L.D. would have to execute numerous safe guards prior to any reversal attempt. The behavior Clint was currently displaying was giving the impression to Tony that the name had triggered something in Clint’s mind just as he had hoped. “I think it would be easier to explain if you answer a few questions for me.

Clint was aggressively jabbing his finger on the pad’s screen, “What do you want to know?”

Tony stood up and walked around the table to take the tablet away from Barton. He worked quickly to bring up the will, positive that Clint would break the tablet trying to find it himself. Tony zoomed in on a specific passage of the legal document. There was no reason to show the entire paragraph yet. “I get who Cooper is, but who is L. E. Barton?”

Taking the device back Clint looked at the passage Tony was pointing to. “I know who that is. Don’t worry about it, you will think it’s stupid, so just continue please, before Laura gets back.”

“You don’t know what I think is stupid. I think it’s stupid when the Barista fills up the coffee all the way to the top then directs you to the cream and sugar counter. I mean – really? You just filled the cup completely full of hot liquid and I’m expected to somehow find some room to add…”

“Tony… just stop.” Clint surrendered, “To get this moving - fine, L. E. is Lila.”

“Why didn’t you just write down Lila then?’

“Because we didn’t know what her name would be, just her initials.” Clint countered as if that explanation would be satisfactory.

Tony wasn’t leaving it alone, “That doesn’t make any sense. How do you decide what the initials are but not the name? More importantly, this was drawn up before the wipe, you wouldn’t have any recall that you guys were struggling to find a name for the wee lassie.”

Clint could see the refrigerator from where he was standing, it was covered in school papers, takeout menus, and drawings being held on by a variety of magnets. His focus was locked onto a picture finger-painted by Nate. It was a family portrait, at least that is what Laura told him it was. “My grandmother, my mom’s mom, her name was Ellie. Her name was really Eliza, but everyone called her Ellie.” Returning his attention to Tony, “Died a year before my parents did.”

Tony thought he had a bad father but after reading Clint’s S.H.I.E.L.D file he realized that Howard Stark had nothing on Harold Barton. “Why not just call her Eliza or Ellie then?”

Clint sat back down in his chair and played with a paper napkin that one of the kids left on the table from lunch. He twisted the corner until it came to a point that reminded him of the toy unicorn Lila had. “Because that would have hit too close to home. She was the only person I ever saw stand up to my dad. She saw what was going on at home and she tried to do something. I don’t know what happened, but never saw her again after that. I decided a long time ago that if I ever had a daughter I would name her after grandma Ellie. Didn’t want to give her either of those names because it would just bring back too many memories, some good, but mostly bad. I figured that Ellie sounded like the letters L and E. It was the least painful way to honor her.” Dropping the napkin onto the table Clint looked up at Tony standing beside him still.  “See told you that you would think it was stupid.”

Returning to his chair as well, Tony threw a quick peek to the window that overlooked the front yard. He needed to hurry this up before the family returned, but he needed to do it at Clint’s pace. “No, no, I don’t think it’s stupid at all. In fact, I hope you don’t lose some of your respect for me when I say that it is very…sweet and touching.”

Clearing his throat and sitting up in the chair Clint composed himself. “Have to have respect before you can lose it Stark.” He joked with a smile and a sparkle in his eyes.

Tony returned the smile, “Touché. Back to the matter at hand, you had a will that read…” taking back the document and taking in a very deep breath, “I bequest all my worldly possessions to my wife, Katherine Elizabeth Bishop-Barton, in the event she has preceded me in death I leave everything to my children, Cooper Francis Barton and L. E. Barton under the legal guidance of Natasha Romanoff.”

Clint answered as if it would solve everything. “That’s not my wife’s name.”

“No shit sherlock, solve the next case.” Stark joshed.

“But, why would it be like this?” The question was more for himself than Tony. “Everything in this will is something I would do. Leave everything to my wife, and if not, I would have Nat watch the kids until they were adults. I could go upstairs right now and show you Laura’s and my current will, the wording is the exact same, just the name has been altered.”

“I agree with you that the document has been altered, however I don’t think in the manner you’re thinking.” This time Tony reached into the briefcase that Clint didn’t realize he had. A thick file emerged. Tony dramatically dropped the file on the table which made a ‘thump” sound upon impact. Opening the file, he took the first page and placed it in front of Clint. “Meet Katherine Bishop, or Kate as she preferred.”

Clint looked down at the paper. It was a copy of an expired New York driver’s license. The black and white photo did not reveal a lot but her stats on the side of the license did. She was five feet seven inches, a hundred and thirty pounds, with black hair and blue eyes. There was something familiar, but Clint couldn’t put his finger on it. Then again, a tall woman with black hair and blue eyes running around New York wouldn’t stand out in a crowd.

“Do you know this woman? Some of the information I’ve gathered indicates that she may had been an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the early 2000’s.” Clint shook his head, so Tony continued, “I know it’s an old photo, but it was the most current one I could find. This was the last legal acknowledgement of her existence until your will. Kate graduated early from M.I.T. with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at twenty. Her transcripts show she was highly trained in numerous classes of martial arts, fencing…and archery.” Clint’s eyebrows rose at the mention of that. “She’s a trust fund baby, but due to an ‘incident’ in her teens, decided to go into public service. Visitor logs from M.I.T. at that time show S.H.I.E.L.D. recruiters meeting with her numerous times. There are even entries of S.H.I.E.L.D. trying to get appointments at Bishop Publishing, but they never made it through the front door.”

Clint knew of Bishop Publishing, it was a major company that did not only limit their focus to publishing but a variety of fields. The business was almost in the media as much as Stark Industries.  “Why was S.H.I.E.L.D. trying to get into the company, and why has no one looked for her until now?”

“She is the daughter of Bishop Publishing owner Derek Bishop and pharmaceuticals heiress Eleonor Macintosh, at least that is what her birth certificate says.” Stark added the last part under his breath. “The mother died when she was younger, and dad quickly remarried.” Clint caught something in Tony’s face, was that sadness? He didn’t want to inquire, whatever was going on wasn’t just because of S.H.I.E.L.D. Tony was invested in this missing woman, and it was personal.  “There is an older half-sister Susan, by the father, who got married almost twenty years ago. Apparently, something went down at the wedding and Kate cut off all ties with the family. She hasn’t touched her money, if fact it has been invested very well on her behalf. My best guess about the lack of searching for her was that as long as daddy had the money, he didn’t care where she was.”

“You think her birth certificate was tampered with?” Clint inquired thankful for the attention being off him for the moment.

“Not like government tampered, no, I think it was more like her prissy pants mother didn’t want to acknowledge the biological father because she was of the opinion that he wasn’t ‘mature’ enough to handle being a father and his parents agreed with her, so she married some dip-ass to give the kid a name and not embarrass her family kind of tampering.” The man said in one long breath.

Clint’s mouth hung open while he was trying to find the right words to reply to Tony’s confession.  All he could come up with was, “Wow that was a lot there Tony, feel like sharing?”

Taking the picture back, Tony placed it into the file and closed it. “I think we have advanced to the part of this gettogether where we will need something stronger than coffee feather brains.” Clint got up in silent agreement and went into the living room. When he returned it was with a bottle of some brown liquid. Tony didn’t care what it was if it did its job. Holding up his mug to Clint he waited until the acceptable amount of liquor was poured until waving it off. Taking a long sip, he welcomed the familiar taste of bourbon into his system. “I knew Ellen was pregnant, really didn’t care at the time. I was eighteen. Put it all out of my mind until I found your will. Didn’t know anything about the kid, and I was fine with that.  I suspect my dad threw money and Derek Bishop at her family to silence the potential high society scandal. The birth certificate and facial comparison from this photo,” gesturing to the closed file in front of him, “places Kate at a seventy-two percent chance of being my daughter.”

The archer drained his coffee cup and refilled it with straight bourbon. “Man, that…that just sucks. I’m sorry. I really wish I could help you, especially now that it’s your kid we are talking about. But I got…”

“Bathroom here?” Tony asked throwing a thumb behind him towards the door next to the far counter.

“No, that is the pantry, and my family and I would appreciate you not using it as a bathroom. I’m renovating the downstairs one, go on up, third door on the right.”

Tony stood and went up the stairs, looking at the pictures that decorated the ascending structure. Happy family pictures. No one ever puts up an unhappy or upsetting photo on the wall he thought to himself. Looking at the Barton family pictures the viewer would just assume it was a plain old normal Middle-American family. They would never guess the father was a trained assassin or the mother was …. what was Laura, he wondered. There was practically nothing on her from his research, but that was probably Fury and Clint’s doing.  Completing the much-needed task, Tony quickly rejoined Clint at the table.

Taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, Tony decided to rip off the band aid. “That wasn’t the only facial comparison I did.” Returning to the tablet that was abandoned to the side, Tony struck it a few times and presented it to Clint. The retired spy looked down and recognized the two pictures displayed. On the left was Kate, as he now knew her to be, and on the right, was Cooper. Tony hit the screen again and parts of the two faces were highlighted. “Clint, my program, which not to brag, but is the best out there puts these two people at a sixty-three percent match with facial comparison. That means that they are closely related.”

He activated the screen again and this time Kate’s face was replaced with Laura, a second tap by Tony highlighted the faces once more. Not as much was highlighted as in the last screen. “The system places Laura and Cooper at a nine percent match.  The result – no relation. I’m not ready yet to make a definite conclusion on this data, I just need some DNA samples then we can …”

“Get the hell out of my house.” Clint demanded in a low and dangerous tone.

Collecting everything off the table to get it out of Clint’s view Tony rationalized for the archer, “Clint, I know this is a lot to take in all at once. I can get us answers, I just need your assistance. Let’s find out what we are dealing with here and then expand to the bigger picture. One step at a time.”

 Clint stood up and in a hostile manner approached Stark. If he wasn’t going to leave on his own, then Barton would make him. The budding altercation was interrupted by Cooper and Lila running into the kitchen followed by Laura carrying the toddler, Nathanial. Clint casted one last angry glare at Tony before morphing into his ‘happy dad’ façade, catching as Lila jumped into his arms.

Placing Nathanial down Laura took off the numerous bags that were crisscrossed across her body. “Sorry we are back so soon, kids were getting hungry, and the state likes it when I feed them at least three times a day.” She grinned to Tony, “Mr. Stark, will you be joining us for dinner tonight? You are more than welcome to stay the night, I just need to prep the bedroom.”

Tony did hear Mrs. Barton but was too busy watching Cooper to answer the invitation. Clint’s saw this and made a sound that caused Tony to break off the captivation. “Sorry, thank you very much for the offer, but I got to be getting back. I have plans with Pepper later.” Focusing again on the boy, “Hey Cooper, your dad and I were talking about getting you to Stark Industries soon. What do you say? Want to play mad scientist with me?”

The boy moved his head up and down in an earnestness that Tony was sure would result in brain damage if not stopped. Releasing a small chuckle, he picked up his briefcase. “Then we will get to work on that, won’t we Clint?” Clint didn’t say anything to that, but offered a warm smile that the child could, and would, interpret as a ‘yes’. “Well then, I’ll be off. Thank you Laura for your hospitality, and Clint – we’ll be in touch.”

“Thank you for coming over. I know Clint has been going stir-crazy without outside contact.” Laura said looking down. “Mr. Stark what did you do to your pants? Do you need me to throw them in the dryer quickly before you leave, I’m sure Clint has something for you until they are done?”

Looking down Tony saw that his right pant leg had a softball size wet spot on it. “Oh, no it will dry, but thank you. Can’t take me anywhere you know”. He smiled at Laura, and with a final glance to Clint left as mysteriously as he arrived.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think so far.


	8. Chapter Seven ~ Releasing The Kraken

Chapter Seven

 

Dinner that evening was uneventful for the most part. Laura had taken the kids to a craft fair that the local high school was hosting to get them away, so Tony and Clint could speak in peace.  Lila had taken pictures on her mother’s cellphone of the items she was excited to try to make herself instead of buying at the fair for a ridiculous price. In between bites of chicken she rattled off a supply list of what she would need. Laura interacted in the conversation while Clint was clearly only half listening.  It was an important trait for her and Clint that the children were interested in crafting. While other kids at the fair were begging their parents for things, the Barton children saw the challenge in replicating and improving the items they were interested in.

Seeing that his mother and sister were busy planning a crafting day, Cooper took the opportunity to ask his father about what happened earlier. “Dad where you and Mr. Stark serious?”

“About what?” asked Clint as he pushed food around on his plate. Tony’s words had invaded his mind. He understood why Stark would be looking for Kate. Hell, if Clint found out he had a kid caught up in the wipe mess he would be looking under every rock himself.  However, including Cooper and himself in it was the confusing part. Clint Barton wasn’t stupid, he knew what Tony was trying to get at with the comparisons of Laura, Kate, and Cooper. There had to be another explanation. Maybe Kate was in S.H.I.E.L.D. with him, perhaps they used her as a cover for Laura. Kate baring similar facial features as Cooper would have only strengthen the cover. It was very possible that he used Kate’s name in place of Laura’s to maintain the family’s security. That would explain why Cooper and Lila had been part of the pre-wipe will that he was shown earlier, but not Laura. Clint had also noticed that the document showed him as a resident of New York, not Iowa, when the document was filed. Those factors alone would keep any potential threat to his love ones caught up for days following the wrong lead.

“Taking me to New York, letting me see Stark Industries? I’ve never been to New York, I could see S.I., maybe even the Avengers compound?” He paused for a moment, then all the enthusiasm dropped from his voice, “never mind”.

Now the child had his father’s undivided attention. “Hey, what’s up Coop?”

Resisting eye contact with Clint, Cooper responded. “Even if you were serious about the trip, you can’t go.”

The tone of disappointment in his son’s words caused the weight of the ankle monitor to increase by twenty pounds.  “Look at me Coop”, waiting until the younger blue eyes met his, was that a feature that was highlighted on Tony’s facial recognition software? Clint just always assumed that Cooper had inherited his eyes, while the other two took from their mother. He cast away the thought as quickly as it came. Tony messed up his chance for a family so in turn was trying to screw up Clint’s. “I’m sorry. I know this hasn’t been easy on you. This,” gesturing to the monitor, “and them,” pointing at a guard, “aren’t forever. This mess with the Accords will get sorted out eventually. Then we will go to New York. Have a nice vacation and see whatever you want. I promise.”

Laura stood up from her seat at the table. Clint didn’t realize that she and Lila had stopped their conversation and watched the Barton men talk. In a successful effort to end the heavy topic she produced a tray of brownies, onto the table and pulled from the freezer a tub of vanilla ice cream.  Dessert wasn’t an everyday occurrence in the household, so the children were delighted. Placing one brownie and a scoop of ice cream on each plate she passed the treat around the table.

“So, you all thinking of putting the band back together?” she asked nonchalantly sitting back down.

Clint was feeding Nate some ice cream which required his complete attention unless he wanted to be wearing it. “Huh?”

He had been ‘going through the motions’ since Tony left. The kids didn’t seem to notice, but she did. He had been unfocused all evening, whatever he and Tony talked about earlier was still kicking about in his head.  “You and Tony this afternoon? Is there a mission going on?”

The ‘clank’ of a spoon being dropped onto the dessert plate caused both parents to turn to the sound. What they found was Lila glowering at them appearing as if she would burst into tears at any moment. “Is dad leaving again?”

Laura quickly shut her eyes. Years ago, she established a ‘no shop talk’ rule at the table. The reason was because Natasha and Clint would entertain the children over meals with stories of their latest adventures, which would not always be age appropriate. She chided herself for breaking her own rule. Why didn’t she just wait until after the children went to bed? Opening her eyes, she saw that Clint was watching her, probably wondering the same damn thing.

In a fast attempt to defuse the situation, Clint filled his spoon up with equal parts brownie and ice cream. Just before eating it, he said “nope”, being sure to pop the ‘p’. Swallowing his food, he returned to the plate for a refill, “It’s nothing like that. He just wanted to ask me some questions about something that happened a long time ago.” Looking to his wife, “You know Tony…he’s exhausting.”

Laura knew a “dodge” when she heard one. They needed to talk, he needed to talk. She was thinking about how to persuade the kids to leave them alone for a moment. Then with perfect timing, as if it knew a distraction was needed, the puppy made its way over to the front door and begun to scratch at it. Wherever the dog had come from, she was grateful it was at least house trained. “Hey guys, if you’re done eating why don’t you take the puppy out while your dad and I clean up?” The teenager and his sister took off faster than one of Thor’s lightning bolts. Laura didn’t know if it was because of the puppy or the rare opportunity to get out of cleaning. She stood up and walked over to the sink to wet a paper towel for Clint to clean Nathaniel off with. Handing it to him in hopes that the cloth would aide in the rediscovery of their youngest child under the chocolate and melted ice cream, she asked seriously, “are you alright, you seem upset?”

Clint kept his eyes on the boy, “Nah, just feel off. Tony brought up some old memories, or to put it better – lack of old memories.”

“The wipe? That was years ago, and was Tony even around S.H.I.E.L.D. at that time?”

“He wasn’t around for the wipe. I believe his memory loss is probably due to his extreme partying back in the day.” Clint had assisted in prepping Natasha before she went out for an assignment to become Tony Stark’s new personal assistant. They discovered that his behavior in the 1980s and 1990s was extremely self-destructive. The concept of a child being conceived during that period wasn’t by any means a stretch of the imagination.

Clint had to stop and ponder what he was about to confide to Laura. He had never been one to keep secrets from her. Over the years he had repeatedly dismissed S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ‘suggested’ psychological sessions, in favor of talking to Laura in bed late at night without fear of anything getting back to the agency. She was his sound wall, and nothing bounced off. “Tony thinks he may have a daughter.”

At that announcement Laura made a “hmmm” noise that translated to “surprise… surprise...” and started to make her way around the table cleaning, and to gather the dishes.

“I know shocker, right?” Clint agreed. “All that playing around finally caught up with him. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner…or more often. Anyways, Tony thinks he has her being recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. right out of college almost twenty years ago. That is as far as he could track her because….”

“Everything is gone from that time.” Laura concluded for him as she stacked plates on each other.

“Yeah.” Clint admitted sadly, “it’s all gone. The trail goes cold after the recruiters.” Clint elected to keep the will screw up to himself for now. He had been thinking all afternoon about it and how with his limited resources at the farm to better investigate. When all the information was collected, then he would tell Laura. There was no need to possibly upset her with someone tampering with such a sacred document without all the information first. Perhaps Natasha could aide in some field reconnaissance since he wasn’t allowed pass the mailbox at the end of the driveway. It was probably a good idea to give her a call anyway and to let Nat know what Tony was up to in case any of his S.H.I.E.L.D. meddling caused her group’s missions some problems. Turning his attention again to Tony’s visit he continued, “I almost feel bad for the guy. Find out he may have a daughter, only to find out that she was caught up in that. The thing is that if she was there, and isn’t now, the reason cannot be good.”

Adding another dish to her stack she questioned, “What reason would that be?”

“Because she was probably killed in the fallout.” He answered lacking any emotion in his voice, Laura’s eyes widened in shock of the comment and sadness for the childless father, but Clint went on. “Only logical explanation there is Laura. Tony knows the intel on the wipe, he is fully aware of what happened afterwards. He’s smart, he is conscious of the probable outcome, especially after our discussion today. Tony is trying his best to place her at S.H.I.E.L.D. at that time, but right now all he has is circumstantial evidence that someone from the agency spoke to her a few times about signing up. Her recruitment, if it happened, would not be in the system because it lines up with the timeframe of the wipe.  I think Tony came here to see if I knew something, just to give him…hope.”

“And did you?” She probed as Clint leaned back so she could have access to the used dishes in front of him.

“I don’t think so, but that doesn’t mean he won’t stop looking for some. Tony walked into here with a lot of information to throw around and I am still processing it.” Laura was bringing the stack of dirty dishes to the sink while Clint decided that their son was clean enough to rejoin society. Undoing the buckles on the highchair to free the prisoner, Clint thought of something. “Hey, Did I ever mention an Agent Bishop to you?”

In the presence of anyone else, the small sudden body stiffening of his wife would have gone unnoticed, but Clint wasn’t anyone else. Just as quickly as it appeared, her body relaxed as she continued with what she was doing. “I think you and Nat have cursed out every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent there is at that very table, and I don’t remember a Bishop ever being mentioned.” She lightly called over her shoulder towards him.

‘Releasing the Kraken’, Clint placed Nate on the floor and followed the child to the entryway of the living room. Nate quickly discovered his toys and became distracted, allowing Clint to return to the conversation at hand. “It was a long shot. I’m going to give Natasha a call, just to give her a heads up that Tony is playing with the S.H.I.E.L.D. databases and see if she knows anything. Think you can handle bath and pajamas solo tonight if I do tuck in?”

Aggressively scrubbing some type of congealed substance from a serving platter she complained, “Calling Natasha is like a thirty-minute process and that is even before you actually speak to her.” Even before the Civil War, Clint and Nat would use burner phones to communicate with each other. They had a system set up relying on how many times to let the phone ring to signal the urgency of the call, and wait periods established on when to return the phone call. Laura didn’t have the patience to decode the system, but it worked for them. “It’s Saturday, we can postpone bedtime a bit for Lila and Cooper. Nate is the strict one.”

“Thanks, I really do appreciate you giving me some time alone today with Tony, but I just need forty-five minutes more. Then it’s back to business as usual for us.”

Placing the last of the dishes into the machine, Laura started the dishwasher. “I need to set up for bath time, can you call the kids in and watch Nate?”

A genuine smile appeared on Clint’s face. “No problem.” He leaned down to kissed her. Laura returned the smile and made her way upstairs as he walked to the front door. Cracking the front door a few inches he called out for Cooper to take out the trash, and for Lila to bring the dog in and get ready for bed. There were the expected protests from the pair, but without any additional prompts needed from their father, the duo returned to the house.

Clint supervised as the children wiped off their feet prior entering the house. A skill that was taught to them at an early age. It was mostly out of habit that Clint watched them. At thirteen and ten, Cooper and Lila were fully capable of handling this task alone. The puppy, who was still unnamed did not get the message and ran pass everyone to get to the water dish in the kitchen. One of the guards, Bobby, was a self-professed ‘dog guru’ and hastily took it upon himself to run to the local pet store for all the necessary items a dog could ever want or need. It wasn’t in Bobby’s job description to run errands for them, but Clint appreciated the flexibility.

Clint replaced the trash bag as Cooper brought the full one out. Listening to Nate babble and Lila play with the dog made him take a satisfying inhale of the life he had built for himself, a decent amount of land, a beautiful wife, three great kids, and now a dog. He was living the American Dream, if that dream included an ankle monitor and round the clock watch detail. Even with all the drama, it was still a good life. It was more than he ever dreamed of or deserved. His life inventory was suspended when Laura called down the stairs, “This is a weird question but do you by chance know where all of the toothbrushes are?”

Dropping his head to his chest he instantly became aware of what had occurred. Damn it Tony! Clint was pissed more at himself then the millionaire. All the signs were there and Clint missed each one. Tony’s trip to the bathroom, the request for DNA, and most importantly, the wet spot on the side of his pants. This was a new low for the Ironman, Tony stole his family’s toothbrushes. Quickly coming up with a story, he lied, “No clue honey, maybe the dog got to them. I’m sure they looked like chew toys to him.” Looking apologetic to the puppy, “sorry boy, but I need you to take one for the team.”

Laura conceded with a sigh, “We are all just going to have to deal with it then, it’s too late to go out tonight. I’ll run out in the morning and pick some up. Send Nate and Lila up.”

 Clint knew there was a silent ‘I told you so’ about the dog somewhere in that comment. He directed the children upstairs and yelled up. “They’re coming up, I’m going to make that call now.” Once outside, Clint held the door for Cooper to go back in. He took in his surroundings. The sun was just kissing the horizon goodnight and giving off a beautiful orangish red glow against the darkness of the approaching night. He saw one of the guards on the opposite side of the porch. With a quick nod of acknowledgement, the man left giving Clint his privacy. No, they weren’t assholes. Pulling his phone out of his back pants pocket he scrolled through his contacts. The contact he needed didn’t have a name to identify it, just a phone number. Finding what he was looking for he hit ‘call’.

~~~

The top floor of the Barton home was where most of the bedrooms were. In addition to the five upstairs which were mostly for the family, there were two more on the ground floor. From the top of the stairs facing the house’s back, straight ahead was a guest room with Lila’s room to the left. A bathroom separated Lila’s bedroom from Nate’s. In the front of the house, Clint and Laura’s were across the hall from the toddler’s, with Cooper’s next to it. Originally, there were six rooms, but Clint’s first project of home renovation was to add a bathroom to the master bedroom. The guest room and the masters were diagonal from each other and the two larger of the five rooms. Clint did this for a reason, from these two rooms he would be able to see any threat that was looming and be able to create the proper counter measures.

Laura watched her husband pace in the front yard from her bedroom window. Clint said forty-five minutes and that was fifteen minutes ago. Nate had gone to bed surprisingly easy, but he did have a long day. Since they didn’t have toothbrushes, Laura went for broke and made Cooper and Lila hot chocolate to drink as a rare treat before bed. They were still downstairs drinking it when Laura came up to get an aerial view of her husband.

“Mom?”

Laura turned from the window and saw her son standing there. The wave of emotions that passed through her were hard to identify, and none that she wanted to, even if she was able. The boy who was almost a man. He had been through so much in his thirteen years on this earth, did he have any idea of it? Finding her voice and pushing down all the emotions, as she tenderly asked, “Did you finish your drink and put the cup in the sink?”

Cooper nodded, “Yes ma’am, so did Lila. I think the dog wore us out more than we did him.” He yawned as he waited for a response.

“Early night then?”

“Yeah, Lila went straight to her room. She almost fell asleep at the table. Think I’m going to lay down and read some before going to sleep. ‘Night mom.” Laura walked over to her eldest child and kissed his cheek.

“Good night Coop.” She waited until he left, pulling the door shut behind him before checking the window again. Clint was still walking back and forth, which meant Natasha hadn’t called back yet. She leaned down to roll up the small area rug that was in front of the bed. She pushed with force on the end of one of the floor boards. Hearing a ‘click’, she was able to lift the board exposing what was hidden underneath. Laura quickly pulled out the black bag and unzipped it. Within the bag held a burner phone, a gun with a silencer already attached, ammunition, a few days’ worth of clothes for everyone, passports, and a lot of cash. She often wondered how Clint could pack so much into a small bag, he would tell her it was a spy’s gift.

Clint had always told Laura and the kids that it ‘isn’t paranoia if everyone is out to get you’. There were bug-out bags hidden everywhere around the home and property. The driveway to the house was two miles long. There were several trails that would accommodate a car around the property. Clint had Laura practice driving the trails often at night since that was prime time for an attack. He taught her how to navigate the trail without the use of any light.  The genius to this plan was that the ‘roads’ he created where a shorter distance to the main road then the driveway was. The head start they had on any enemy by use of the trails was four to six minutes which Clint explained could be the difference between life and death. A car was parked behind the barn always with a full tank of gas and previsions for an extended road trip.

As soon as Cooper could understand, Clint had taken him around the house and showed the child what to do if anything ever happened. Since the boy turned twelve last year, Clint had started to take Cooper to the barn for ‘training’.  Laura wasn’t enthusiastic about her son learning how to fight and shoot a gun but understood the necessity of it.  Soon it would be Lila’s turn and before Laura could blink, Nate’s. Where had the years gone she wondered as she loaded the gun. Clint was, and always would be, the front line of defense for the family, but it gave him peace of mind knowing that if anyone or anything got through him, the family could handle themselves. The bug-out bags, the training, hidden car, and numerous trails resulted in the fact that at any point the Barton family could ‘disappear’ and fall even further off the grid then they had been before the Accords affair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments make me happy!


	9. Chapter Eight ~ Innocence Lost

 

Chapter Eight

 

Clint, as a trained assassin was accustomed to waiting. Glancing down at his watch, he counted twenty-eight minutes since he let the burner phone ring twice before disconnecting. Two rings were Natasha’s and his signal for ‘not urgent, need to touch base’. The appropriate reply was a thirty-minute wait, followed by two rings, then Clint would call her again. At thirty minutes exactly, his screen lit up with the alert of an incoming call. One ring…two rings…then missed call notification. Immediately Clint hit ‘call back’ and started walking away from the house up the driveway, so the tree coverage would conceal his voice.  “Hey Nat, how is everything going?”

“Same old-same old, how about you guys? What’s going on?” Clint heard a conversation take place on Nat’s end but could not make out the words until she told him, “Steve says hi.”

She knew from the system established that the Barton family was probably alright, or there would had been a different signal used, so Clint kept it cheerful. “We’re good here. Tony stopped by today.”

Again, the exchange on the other end started but this time he could make out Natasha saying, ‘Tony was at the farm today’ and Steve’s ‘what did he want?’. She inquired to Clint, “Was he alone or did he bring Ross with him to make sure you were being a good boy?”

Clint knew she was having a dig at him about the house arrest, back when the deal was offered and accepted she had been very supportive of his decision. “No Ross, but I’m sure the guards have reported back by now that Stark was here. Tony visited to apologize and ask some questions. His questions are actually what I was calling about.”

“He apologized to you?” The back and forth with Rogers started again.

Clint proposed, “Hey ‘Tasha, would it be easier just to put me on speaker?  Unless you enjoy playing ‘telephone’?

Suddenly the sound on the call changed, Clint knew she had taken him up on his offer. He heard Steve’s voice bitterly getting straight to the point. “Clint, what did Stark want?”

Rolling his eyes, “Hello to you as well Steve, and yes thanks for asking, the family is doing great. What were you raised in a barn? It’s called proper phone etiquette.”

Steve actually sounded a bit embarrassed, “I’m sorry you’re right. Hello Clint. How are you? How is the family?”

“We are all good, but that’s not what this is about. Stay on target Rogers. Tony just apologized. Explained his role and why he did what he did. Well, he didn’t just apologize, he tried to bribe me with a tractor and gave my kids a dog?”

 “What kind of dog?” The new energetic voice on the line was obviously Sam Wilson. Leave it to Sam to only take away the dog part from the conversation.

Clint was aware that each word was driving Steve insane, but he loved it. He had missed the back and forth with the gang. “There is a stack of paperwork inside, haven’t had the time yet to read through it. I think it’s a Labrador Retriever. Cutest little thing, only seven weeks old.”

“Got a name for it yet?” From the tone the Falcon was using it was clear to Clint that he was playing along.

“No, the kids are in discussions. I gave them the deadline of dinner tomorrow to name it or I will.” Clint knew he was pushing it with Steve’s patience.  

He was correct, Steve had enough, “As interesting as this canine is, can we get back to Tony’s visit?”

“Damn Steve, it’s not like I’m fighting HYDRA out there like you guys. A new puppy is the most exciting thing that has happened on the farm since Bobby got stung by a bee, and he was allergic by the way.”

Getting more frustrated by the moment Steve asked, “Who’s Bobby?”

 “Oh, he is just one of my keepers.”

“You have guards on you?” Rogers sounded offended on Clint’s behalf. 

Did Steve really have no clue about the conditions of the house arrest? He would have supposed Natasha had filled the group in by now. “Like CNN - twenty-four, seven. It was part of the house arrest deal, that and the jewelry.”

“So, these questions?” Natasha asked redirecting everyone back on point.

Leave it to Nat to ruin a good time. “Yeah, Stark has been digging in the Wipe of ’08. Part of the reason I was calling was to let you know that he is playing in the S.H.I.E.L.D. databases in case it has some effect on your missions. Just be cautious, I don’t think he is going to stop anytime soon. His real reason for coming was to ask me about a possible S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Do you know anyone by the name of Kate or Katherine Bishop?”

The wipe was a touchy subject for any of the agents involved. It was rarely referred to, so Clint using their phone system to be asking anything about the event set off alarms in Natasha’s head. “I do not, should I?”

“Don’t know. Tony seems to have some documents that suggest I may have known her at some point. That is a long story. Anyways, her time, if any, in S.H.I.E.L.D. would have been erased.  I’m thinking if anything, she was a cover for Laura. I was just checking to see if it rang any bells with you.”

“No sorry, why is Tony looking?” Nat was failing to see the urgency. A lot of people went missing after the wipe. There were probably many people in this Bishop woman’s position, lost and forgotten.

‘Here we go again’, Clint thought maybe it would just be easier to send out a group text about Tony’s paternity crisis. “Again, long story, but it is possible that Kate is his daughter.”

Steve had been tolerantly waiting for a pause in the dialogue between the two friends before interjecting, “I think I’m missing some information and back story, so I just need a few facts. First, who is Kate, what was the “Wipe of ‘08”, and why is he asking you about all of this?”

Clint and Natasha simultaneously took a deep breath, but Clint beat her to the explanation. “As far as I can tell Kate Bishop is a smart, rich girl from the city who is possibly the bastard child of Stark. The Wipe was when the World Security Council decided that they needed to erase seven years of memory from every agent in S.H.I.E.L.D. by using an implant that was installed on our brains during recruitment. And for the final question, I think Tony believes I had a connection to the lady.  Anything else?”

There was a long silence on the line. Finally, it was Sam who found his voice. “Ok, that... wait, you have an implant in your head?”

Natasha added smoothly. “Every agent does. I doubt the agency stopped the procedure after the wipe.”

Steve threw a side glance to the Black Widow in disbelief of her indifferent attitude to the event. Then he alleged, “I am sure there is more to that, but we will have to wait on the whole story. Why don’t you just have it removed?”

Clint was insulted by the simplicity of Steve’s question. “Out of curiosity Steve, how many times have you volunteered for brain surgery? Don’t you think I have asked about that when I found out I had it and asked again when I retired, hoping that perhaps there had been some medical advancements over the years? The medical staff told me that removal could do more damage than the implant itself. Frankly Captain Sir, I have been hit in the head too many times in my life to roll those dice.” Clint never heard Steve’s response because the conversation was disrupted by the sound of a car speeding away behind him. Odd, he was staring down the driveway at the two cars the Barton’s owned, Clint’s truck and Laura’s SUV. The watch detail wasn’t scheduled to change for another hour, and they parked next to Clint’s truck. There was only one other car on the property. “Shit!”

“Clint?”

“Hold on.” Arriving behind the barn, Clint’s suspicions were correct. The ‘getaway’ car was gone. Running back up to the house he could make out the shouting that was coming through on the phone, Natasha was screaming at him for a ‘report’.

Clint threw the front door to the house wide open, causing the door to smash into the wall. He took a hard left into the kitchen. What Clint saw made his blood run cold. The four bodies of his guards were spread out on the floor. Every night before the end of a shift the detail would gather in the kitchen for a cup of coffee, sometimes Clint would join them with something a bit stronger.  Each man laid dead with a bullet to the forehead, an assassin’s shot. Clint stood in horror as the familiar smell of blood invaded upon his highly tuned senses. His nearest weapon was in the cabinet above the sink. Jumping over the bodies, Clint ran to the area. He was reaching up to open the cabinet when he saw it. Placed in the sink were two cups, he recognized each one immediately.  Laura had given each child a personalized coffee cup with hot chocolate mix as a stocking stuffer last Christmas.  Checking the coffee maker Clint saw that the machine was off, so the guards hadn’t yet begun their nightly ritual. He distinctly recalled that Laura had emptied the sink and started the dishwasher prior to getting the kids ready for bed, so there should not be any dirty dishes. There was a bit of dark substance on the bottom of Lila’s cup with white particles floating on the surface. Placing his index finger into it, he brought it up to his mouth and tasted. Clint recognized the danger immediately. In that second his instincts kicked in, reaching up into the cabinet, he pulled out two guns. He stuffed one into the back of his pants and retained the other in his left hand.

“Laura?! Cooper?! Lila?!” He screamed taking the steps to the second floor three at a time.

“Clint! Damn it Barton! What is going on?” Steve’s muffled voice demanded.

Without even speaking into the phone Clint shouted back, “I’ve been compromised. Someone shot my guards, there’s sedatives in the kids’ cups and my getaway car is gone.” Lila’s room was the first room accessible from the stairs. Hurling through her door, he found the girl sleeping in bed. Her breathing was much deeper than it was normally due to the use of the sedative. A quick check of her vitals proved she wasn’t in any immediate danger.

Running across the hallway to Cooper’s room, Clint found the boy in a similar state. Kneeling at the bed he placed the cellphone on the floor. The phone had long since gone quiet, but he knew they were still connected. If Clint had the time to guess, he would think they put him on ‘mute’ while they strategized. Cooper’s breathing wasn’t as deep as Lila’s was. Placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder Clint lightly shook. “Coop? Wake up Cooper.”

Cooper’s eyes shot wide open as he jerked his body upright. “Dad? What’s wrong?” He was only thirteen, but he was Clint Barton’s thirteen-year-old son. The teenager could easily comprehend something was happening, and it was bad.

“Coop how are you feeling?”

“Not great. My stomach hurts.”

Clint breathed out in relief at that statement. While none of the children had any known allergies, Cooper always had a sensitive stomach.  The boy had already eaten ice cream and brownies for dessert, running around outside with a puppy and a hot chocolate drink spiked with a drug would have undoubtedly cause his to be upset. “Did you throw up?”

The boy nodded, and Clint thanked God as he told the kid to get up. Clint went back into the hallway only to reappear a moment later carrying Lila on his shoulder. With his one free hand Clint grabbed the back of Coopers head, pulling the teenager’s face towards his own, forcing eye contact. “Cooper, I need you to do something right now. All the training in the barn, everything I have taught you, you remember it, right?” Again, Cooper nodded. Clint broke the eye contact only to reestablish it with a remorseful look.  Whatever innocence his son still had, Clint was about to rob him of it. “I need your help. Someone has been in the house. The guards, they are dead. The barn car is gone. Someone put something in yours and Lila’s drink to make you fall asleep.” Clint gestured with his eyes towards Lila. “I still need to find your mom and brother.” With the sigh of a heartbroken man, Clint released his son’s head and reached at his back to retrieve and hand Cooper the second gun.

Clint picked up the cellphone again and motioned for them to leave the room. Keeping Cooper behind him and Lila over his shoulder, they went to Nate’s. Much to Clint’s surprise, the toddler was standing up in his bed with hands on the crib’s railing, jumping up and down.  Clint tried his best to sound like ‘daddy’ and not like ‘Agent Barton’ or ‘Hawkeye’. “Hey little man. Did daddy wake you up with all the door slamming?” Clint sure as hell hoped so. Of all the children, Nathanial was the lightest sleeper. The idea that his youngest son woke up to the sound of gunshots was too much to handle right now. Clint placed Lila in the rocking chair and instructed his son, “Cooper, I need you to stay with your brother and sister.” Lifting the cellphone to his ear Clint reported, “Lila has been drugged, but I have Cooper and Nate with me in the nursery. I need emergency services here to handle the bodies and the kids. I’m going to give you over to Cooper now to tell him what to do next while I look for Laura.” He then gave Cooper the cellphone, “Aunt Nat is on the phone, so is Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson. I need you to talk to them and do exactly what they say until I get back. Don’t let anyone in this room but me.”

Cooper watched his father leave the room. Willing his voice not to sound shaky or scared he spoke into the phone, “Aunt Nat.”

“Cooper, do you have a gun?” She asked bluntly.

“Yes.”

“Good. Go over to the door and lock it.” Cooper complied. “Now I need you to open the closet, there should be a black backpack behind a box of Nate’s winter clothes.”

The teenager opened the closet door and pushed around assorted items until he found the bag. “Got it.”

“Check it, you should have another gun, some bullets, a phone, and clothes. There should also be two plastic bags, one full of money and the other with papers in it.”

Mentally checking off the items as she said them, he could confirm that everything was there. “Yes ma’am. All of that is in here.” He looked over to his baby brother still in the crib. Nathaniel was playing with a stuff animal, totally unaware to the danger he was in.

“Sam is working on getting the police over to you.” Wilson was on his own burner phone and using a laptop to bounce the cellular signal off numerous towers to hide the Secret Avenger’s location and to make the phone call look like it was coming from the house. “What is going to happen next is important. The police are going to show up along with some government officials. They are going to want to take you, Lila and Nate to the hospital to get checked out. The officials are going to want to talk to your dad, so he won’t be with you.  Don’t fight it, your dad probably will, but you just go. You must be sure to take the bag with you. It looks like a normal bookbag but just in case they do go through it, I need you to wrap up the gun and bullets into some of the clothes and pack them at the bottom.  Take the money out of the bag and put it in your pocket along with the phone. The second bag with the papers, throw into the winter clothes box.”

Cooper was working franticly following each instruction as soon as it was given. He paused when he heard his father screaming out his mother’s name. Nate heard it also and started to cry. Cooper said loudly over his brother’s cries, “Aunt Nat, dad is screaming.” The older brother moved to the toddler to comfort him. “Aunt Nat?”

“It’s ok Cooper, he’ll be fine. Police are on their way.” Natasha hoped she wasn’t lying to the child about his father. Sam showed her on the laptop that the E.T.A. for emergency response was under three minutes. “You just try to calm Nate down alright?” It was doubtful at this point there were any threats still inside the house, but she wasn’t in the habit of taking chances.

A voice called through the door. “Cooper, it’s me- open up.” Cooper slowly opened the door, peering around it to be sure it was his dad, with the gun hidden behind his back. Nate was quickly silence by the reappearance of his dad.  Clint walked into the room, leaving the door open. That small gesture would have made Cooper feel more comfortable, but the look on Clint’s face told him that they were anything but safe. His father walked over to where Lila was still sleeping and bent down to check her, taking her pulse and checking her breathing. Clint returned to Cooper once done, “I need to talk to Natasha, stay here until either me or the police come. Don’t forget the bag.” Taking both the cell phone and the gun from Cooper, he left the room.

Clint walked back into his bedroom, so he could watch out the window for approaching vehicles. The house was clear, but he still preferred to keep all the children together in the nursery and away from the kitchen if possible. He could just barely see a glare of blue and red lights in the distance approaching. Raising the phone to his ear he said, “Nat, she’s gone.”

“Laura?”

“She’s gone,” he repeated in disbelief. “The bug-out bag from the bedroom floor has been tossed. The gun, phone and money are missing.” Rubbing his hand over his face he raised his voice, imploring for another explanation than what his brain had already concluded, “Shit Nat, the kids were drugged and put to bed! The bag was pulled out and gone through. The person used the car and back trails without turning on the headlights…”

“Clint don’t jump to conclusions.” Despite her warning, Natasha was already there, and she knew Clint was painfully also. To say that they were both emotionally invested was an understatement, but both agents were professional enough to sort the evidence. She wished she could say she was shocked, but she had learned a long time ago that the people allowed to get the closest were the first to betray. Poison was a woman’s weapon, add the intimate knowledge of where specific things were located, and it all painted a horrifying picture of the unbelievable.


	10. Chapter Nine ~ We'll Always Have Egypt

 

Chapter Nine

“You know we have plans tonight right?” Pepper Potts called out as she punched in the keys to be granted access to inside Tony’s lab.

Tony was spinning around on his stool in front of his workbench. Every monitor in the lab was working at capacity shifting through data. He was now just waiting for a hit on his search filters and results from a few tests. Astonishing enough the room was clean. Usually when Pepper had to come down to get him, the room was cluttered with machinery and tools. “Yeah, something came up. How do you feel about ditching the reservations and finding a little hole in the wall down in Brooklyn?”

Looking up to see what had his attention she saw nothing, “Why Brooklyn? What is threatening the world now?”

“My genes.” Jumping off the stool, he went to where Pepper was.  

She understood straightaway the meaning. “Kate.” Tony had come to her days ago and apologized for it. She let him explain, then when he was done she told him that there was nothing for him to apologize to her about. Many women would have been angry with a fiancé informing them of a long-lost child, Pepper was anything but that. She had been supportive from the start and encouraged the search. She was the one who urged him to go see Clint. “Did you talk to Clint?”

“Yes, I did.” Tony said walking to another monitor and with a hand gesture casted a 3-D interactive image to project around him.

Pepper probed. “And?” 

As he was tapping on the hologram, Tony shook his head at the projection, and swiped it away. Informing Pepper of the developments, or lack of, “He doesn’t remember her. I think I may have triggered something, but nothing definite.”

She observed that he looked so tired. When was the last time he slept, three, four days ago? “So, you are back to the data dump autopsy?”

“Not quite.” Strolling to the workbench next to Pepper, he picked up a plastic bag filled with toothbrushes and shook it. “I didn’t come back empty handed.”

“How did you get those?” She didn’t know why she asked, there really wasn’t any acceptable answer to her question.

“I borrowed them,” Pepper rolled her eyes, “Don’t give me that look, if they really want them back I’ll overnight it. Clint hasn’t said anything… yet.” Checking his watch, “He may in a few hours, but nothing yet. If these results say what I think they will, I will need to go to Brooklyn.”

Right on cue, the tablet on the desk beeped. Tony ran over to the device and picked it up. Pepper waited until she thought he had enough time to study it. “Well? Are those the results you were waiting for?”

“That and some. I compared the DNA on all five toothbrushes and for a little spice added my own. FRIDAY run the results please.”

The large monitor on the far wall from where Pepper stood showed a screen of six pictures. Five of the images were of Clint, Laura, Cooper, Lila, and Nathaniel Barton, then there was a photograph of Tony. Tony’s natural-language user interface computer system, FRIDAY, started the announcements of the results. Pepper watched as a purple line from Clint’s photo connected to both Cooper’s and Nate’s picture. “Clinton Francis Barton is the father of both Cooper Francis Barton and Nathaniel Pietro Barton with a ninety-nine-point nine percent match of DNA.” Laura’s had a red line and linked to Nathaniel’s as well. “Laura Mitchel Barton is the Mother of Nathaniel Pietro Barton with a ninety-nine-point nine percent match of DNA.” Tony’s line was gold and went to Cooper’s picture. “Antony Edward Stark is the grandfather of Cooper Francis Barton with a ninety-nine-point nine percent match of DNA. Would you like anything else boss?”

Feeling pleased with himself Tony instructed the system, “Continue running the data on possible S.H.I.E.L.D activities within a week of the wipe please.”

Pepper whispered as she was looking at the screen, internalizing the implications of the results, “Oh my God.” Then resumed her normal volume, turning to Tony. “What does this all mean? What about Lila? Clint is only the father of Cooper and Nate.”

“I don’t know what it means. Clint told me earlier that he had the sonogram of Lila on him at the time of the wipe. Laura was pregnant when he got back to her, and he missed the girl’s birth by only ten hours due to early delivery.” Tony summarized, hoping that he had his facts straight.

Pepper just stared at the picture of Lila, the only picture without a line connected to it. “But how could that be if Lila isn’t biologically theirs? Perhaps an egg donor?”

Tony shook his head, “It’s doubtful that there were fertility issues.  If you ask me, Laura got pregnant pretty quick after the battle of New York with Nate.”

Pepper felt the need to point out, “I think it is also doubtful that Clint would have just casually discussed with the Avengers if they were having difficulty conceiving.”

“I never got the impression that Nate was ‘planned’. I guess I always assumed after the whole ‘Loki thing’ Clint was put on the bench from S.H.I.E.L.D. until they were sure he was fit for duty. There is only so much work a person can do on a farm before its time to find a better way to spend the time if you catch my drift.” Taking a deep breath, Tony looked around the workshop, “I am not going to get any answers sitting here, I am going to have to talk to Clint again. The immediate takeaway right now is that Kate must be Cooper’s mother. Clint knew her.”

Pepper added sarcastically,” I think he did more than ‘know’ her Tony.”

Tony agreed, “I think so, but I still can’t for sure place her in S.H.I.E.L.D.”

Rolling her eyes again, Pepper stated, “That’s not what I meant.”

Not catching what Pepper was throwing, Tony questioned, “What?”

Tony wasn’t naïve by any means, but, Pepper believed that he may have not seen anything pass his goal of confirmation that Kate existed past 2001 when she graduated. He just gained four years placing her in 2005 giving birth to Cooper. “Tony, you are aware that Clint and Kate had to ‘be together’ for there to even be a Cooper, right?”

Tony stared at Pepper like she had a second head, searching for her meaning. All Pepper could do was wait him out, he would get it eventually. Suddenly, Tony’s eyes got wide. “That son of a bitch!”

“There it is.” She said with a sly smile.

It was the first time Tony had actually thought about the relationship of his friend and daughter, he screamed with a little panic mixed in, “Clint slept with my daughter. Do you know how many bro-codes that breaks?”

Counting off the reasons as she went, “Does the ‘bro-code’ apply when, one- you have never had anything to do with Kate, two- you didn’t know Clint back then, and three- they were grown adults?”

Tony was attempting to control his breathing, “FRIDAY add to my calendar to kick Clint’s ass. Sub note – bring the suit. I don’t stand a chance against him without it.”

The system responded, “Yes sir.”

Tony was more driven than ever, “I have to get to that apartment building.”

“Why? “A building owned by Clint that he hadn’t been in for ten years didn’t appear to Pepper like a goldmine of information.

He explained, “Clint didn’t just own the building, he used to live there. If I can get in that apartment, I may be able to find something.”

Pepper didn’t want to see Tony get hurt, and this was looking like a dead end. “It has been ten years at least since he has stepped foot in there. The building is probably abandoned and condemned by now.”

It was obvious that Tony had researched the situation, “Clint had the whole building outsourced to an apartment management company. They collected rent and did the everyday running of the building. When a tenant had an issue, they called the company. Clint was ‘hands off’.”

“Tony, you know I support you in almost all your endeavors, but again, it’s been ten years, what if there is nothing to find?”

Tony let Pepper’s words sink in as he leaned against the workbench for support. In a small vulnerable voice, he swore, “There has to be.”

The way Tony said that frighten her, “Why? What is so important about placing Kate at S.H.I.E.L.D. for the wipe?” It was time to be direct. While Pepper had been supportive in the beginning, every piece of new information was making it look worst for the fate of Kate. “You know that if she was there and no one has had contact with her…you could be chasing a ghost.”

The words hurt. They hurt hard. Of course, he knew of that possibility but refused to accept it until he had a grave or a witness. “She was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. it’s the only explanation that fits all of this. If it wasn’t the wipe, then why isn’t there anything else on her? She has a bank account stuffed with money that she hasn’t withdrawn a dime from since her sister’s wedding. The evidence points to her not remembering S.H.I.E.L.D. but recalling enough of her training to go into hiding. Something happened. I’m telling you Pepper.  If she ...died after the wipe, then Derek Bishop would have drained that account by now. Someone is watching it and preventing him from access but investing and investing wisely.”

Pepper looked down to find strength in what she was about to say, “Her being…gone would explain Laura. Let’s go with the ‘she joined S.H.I.E.L.D.’ theory of yours for a bit. What if she wasn’t taken out by the fallout of the wipe. What if it was a mission? Would it be possible that Clint married Laura afterwards? If for nothing else but to provide Cooper with a mother?”

Pushing himself upright, more determined than ever to prove his point, “If she died before the wipe, then Clint or Cooper would have inherited the money. Everything I have found on Kate tells me that she was too smart to die leaving a child behind without means to be supported.”

Pepper rationalized, “Then that would explain how Clint would have been able to buy the apartment building.” 

“Pepper, please stop. She’s alive. I know it. She could not have been taken out by a mission. I couldn’t handle it.

“What?” Pepper wondered how he could be acting this way about a person he had never met. Tony knew Kate existed, and never mentioned her before, why the sudden change?

“The primary enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D is HYDRA, and the thought that she was killed by HYDRA… not again. Because if it’s true then HYDRA killed my parents and my daughter. They would have taken from me my past and my future.”

Pepper almost erupted in tears at the raw confession. In that statement, Tony Stark opened the door to all the demons that have been plaguing him since he found out the truth behind his parent’s death. She grabbed Tony gently and held him close to her. She could hear his heart racing. “No, they didn’t. They can’t take away all the amazing things you have done or will do. They didn’t take away me, they didn’t take away Cooper. You have Cooper now. You have a grandson Tony. He is the future.”

~~~

Autumn in New York was always a crapshoot. Currently the weather was a tad crisp but not enough for a jacket or sweater. Pepper knew the temperature would drop with the sun and scolded herself for not bringing some sort of covering. The weather be damned, she was just thankful to be standing on solid ground. Tony had broken various traffic laws getting them here in record time. In the case that Tony was correct, then the apartment that was supposedly untouched for ten years wasn’t going to go anywhere in the additional ten minutes it would have taken to stop at red lights, let people go in the crosswalk, or not take turns on two wheels. She didn’t know what he intended to find in the apartment. There was clearly a connection between Kate and Clint, and that connection was named Cooper, but there wasn’t any evidence to link the two together in the apartment. But if this is what he needed to get closure, she would stand by him every step of the way.

“This is it.” Tony proclaimed as he shut his car door and met Pepper on the sidewalk. They were both looking up at the older brick building wondering what treasures it held. The neighborhood seemed quiet compared to the bustling city life just a few blocks over. The few people who were outside were conducting domestic affairs, walking the dog, taking out the trash and so on. There was a very ‘suburban’ feel to the environment.

“I can’t believe Clint owns it, which one is his?”

Checking his phone for the details, Tony informed her, “Hawkeye? I’m shocked you have to ask, of course, he would be in apartment H.”

They went up two flights of stairs and down a hallway before arriving at the desired location. “Remember, this is a spy’s home, stay behind me. FRIDAY run a scan for potential hazards.”

“Boss, I do not detect any threats outside or within the apartment.” FRIDAY informed.

Tony and Pepper shared a concerning look. The lack of security of the apartment caused Tony to feel a bit uneasy. He had put a lot on this still being Clint’s apartment. It was customary practice he assumed for spies to set up traps and alarms for intruders. Trying the door knob first Tony wasn’t surprised at all that it was locked, but it was worth a try. Retrieving a gadget out of the bag he had on his shoulder he made quick work of unlocking it. Putting his hand once more on the knob he turned to Pepper, “What I am about to say comes from the heart, so I really don’t want to hear ‘I told you so’.”

“What are you talking about?”

He turned the knob to open the door a hair, “I think we could possibly be breaking into a stranger’s home.” With that, he opened the door all the way and walked in.

Pepper stood in a daze but followed suit, “Tony, I told you…um”

“Yeah, I know. So, I guess I told you so.” At first appearance, the apartment was bigger than it should be. The place must have at one point been two apartments consolidated into one. A white chair rail wrapped around the entire length of the apartment separating a gray bottom from a purple top paint job.  Left from the door was a cozy kitchen that opened into a large living area. Taking a right from the entrance would send a person down a hallway with two doors on each side and one at the end. If anyone else would have walked in, the focal point of the apartment would be the big balcony doors that were straight ahead, but to Pepper and Tony it was the item that hung ornamentally over the couch, a bow.

After turning on the lights Tony saw the neglect of the home. Ten years of dust was caked on everything. The evening twilight coming through the window highlighted the particles that they had disrupted upon arrival floating in the air. They had only seen the living room and kitchen, but despite the dust, the place seemed clean and tidy. Two words that one would never use for Clint Barton. There wasn’t anything on the floor and the only surface that contained any items were the bookcases placed on each side of the balcony entrance.  The cases were six shelves each with nothing on the bottom two. Since it was as good of a place to start as any, Tony gestured for Pepper to ‘divide and conquer’ the search.

Each taking a bookcase, Pepper was still skeptical. “Are we a hundred percent sure this is his place, or are we just running with the assumption since there is a bow hanging on the wall?”

Keeping his eyes trained scanning the numerous books, “It’s his place alright, if not we just found the mother of all coincidences.  Imagine leasing to a person that also loves bows…” taking one book off the shelf, “and classic spy novels?” The book had seen better days for sure. The jacket was barely one piece. “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Tony read out loud. The 1974 John le Carre classic must have been a very relatable read for Barton. Flipping through the pages, a photo fell out onto the light purple rug. Pepper watched as Tony bent down to retrieve it, causing more dust to fly up. Still in a kneeling position he turned his body to hand it to her and said in a tone that she couldn’t identify, “Pepper.”

Taking the photo from him she made an audible inhale. The photo was of a couple wearing S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms, sitting on a wall with the Pyramids of Egypt as a backdrop. A young Clint Barton sat with his arms draped over the woman Pepper now knew as Kate Bishop. Kate’s arms were crossed at the wrist in front of her chest holding his hands, both were looking at the camera and smiling. Two bows could be seen leaning against the wall. In Pepper’s eyes, the intimate picture showed two young people clearly in love and proudly showing it. She was now able to identify the tone Tony was using, it was hope.

Standing up to take the picture back, Tony stated about the photograph, “This proves everything.”

Agreeing, Pepper said, “It’s hard to dispute anything with this.”

Placing the photo into his bag he directed, “Let’s check out the other rooms.”

Going down the hallway, Tony opened the first door on the left. It was the master bedroom. The room at first glance didn’t give any clues to who the occupant could be. The far window had white sheen curtains that permitted the evening light in. The purple color scheme continued into the bedroom, taking the form of a bed spread that complimented the steel gray walls. The bed was against the center of the right wall with a night stand on each side. Across from the bed was a lowboy dresser in metallic finish. All the furniture they had seen so far in the apartment was very modern, even for ten years ago, which Tony again disbelieved highly was Clint’s style. The dresser had a few odds and ends scattered on it. The first personalization of the space other than the hidden picture they noticed. Pepper looked at the objects. Any doubt she had that it wasn’t Clint’s home were wiped out when she saw the various arrow heads littered all over the surface.

“Clint was never one to clean up after himself. Probably just dumped out his pockets.” Tony’s attention was on the ring jewelry box that sat towards the back of the dresser. Picking up the box he opened it. Seeing what it was he pulled the photo out of his bag. “It’s the same ring.”

Looking at the photo Pepper realized that she missed an important detail that apparently her fiancé had not. On Kate’s left ring finger was a small purple jeweled ring. The box that Tony was currently holding did indeed look to be storing the same ring. Seeing it in person it was not small but modestly sized. The purple gem which she assumed was an amethyst was shaped into the shape of an arrowhead set in white gold. The ring wasn’t the only inhabitant of the box there was a second ring also, a white gold wedding ring. Along with the photo, Tony placed everything in his carrier and walked to the left of the dresser into the ensuite.

Hitting the light switch, Tony was momentarily blinded with the reflection of the lights over the mirror onto the white tiled room. His eyes needed to adjust after only using natural light sources. The first thing he saw was a hairbrush laying carelessly on the sink counter among various other toiletries.  Picking up the object for a closer inspection he could see the black hairs weaved into the bristles. Yet another thing to add to his collection. There was no doubt in his mind that Kate wasn’t his child but running her hair through his system against himself and Cooper wouldn’t hurt.  Taking a tool out of his bag he used it to scan the brush, “FRIDAY darling please compare this hair against Cooper and myself.”

“Yes boss” the system obeyed.

Tony swept the room visually, not seeing anything of interest he opened the medicine cabinet. There wasn’t much there other than the staple items one would expect, pain relivers, cold medicines, bandages, and other types of medication. Going through the full prescription bottles he saw that they were all in Clint’s name, nothing for Kate. So, either she never needed medication, or she actually took hers unlike Clint. Examining the meds, he noticed that it was everything you would expect to see in a spy’s cabinet, pain killers, muscle relaxants and antibiotics.

“Tony, come here!” Pepper shouted.  Throwing one of the bottles into the sink he ran out into the hallway. Pepper must have been checking out the other rooms. The door at the end was another bathroom. The room across from the master’s was a second bedroom. Tony stole a quick glance into the room then halted at what he saw. The room was painted in a soft blue. There wasn’t any question as to who’s room this was. A small bed was set up in the corner with the name Cooper decorated on the wall above. There were toys dispersed around. While the rest of the apartment lacked any personalization or sense of being lived in, this room shouted it.

Tony forgot all about Pepper’s call and entered the room going straight to the tall dresser. Unexpected since the only photo they had discovered was hidden, the dresser acted proudly as a display for the young family’s pictures. One picture in the center was apparently the designer’s intent to be the first one to catch the viewer’s attention. It was of Kate, Clint and a newborn Cooper. It was obviously taken in the hospital given the background and generic blanket and hat the baby was wrapped in.

There was a picture of Clint holding Cooper in his lap in front of a cake, with a “1” birthday candle on it. Another of all three in Santa hats beside a Christmas tree. The captured family moments were all here abandoned and covered in dust. The last image caused a feeling in Tony’s chest that he had never experienced before. In a wooden frame with the words ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ burned into the bottom panel was a picture of Kate holding her smiling son, throwing her head back in a laugh.

He was contemplating taking the picture with him when Pepper called again, “Tony you really need to see this.” Deciding to take the only picture he may ever have of his daughter and grandson together he carefully tucked it away with the other objects he had accumulated. Pepper was calling from the room right next door to Cooper’s. It took two steps into the bedroom for Tony to understand the panic from Pepper. This room was painted in a lovely rose pink, that’s hue instantly put out a soothing effect. A white crib was set up in the center of the far wall. White and pink were the color scheme in this room. The dressers and changing table all had a glossy white finish. The glider tucked into the corner did as well with pink upholstery.

Pepper was standing next to the dresser that like the other room was a showcase for pictures. However, this room only had two photographs displayed. The smaller of the two was a sonogram. The second was a family portrait. Tony felt his chest tighten and his breathing become labored. Clasping his hand to his chest he bent forward. Pepper had seen this many times before, he was having a panic attack. It had been a long time since he had experienced one, or at least that is what she had been told.  Under these conditions she wasn’t surprised at all that this was happening now. Gently taking him by the upper arm she led him to the glider to sit in. Dust flew up from the cushion as he sat. She took his heavy shoulder bag from him and placed it on the floor beside the chair.

“I’m fine.” He assured Pepper, waving away the dust. “I just need a minute to think,”

“Tony what happened here?” She asked looking around the room and back to Tony.

“I need to think.” He repeated more for himself than her, “Please bring me that picture.”

Pepper didn’t need to be told which of the two he was requesting. Grabbing the bigger frame, she handed it to Tony. The picture featured the three Bartons. Clint and Kate were standing in front of the apartment building. Cooper was balanced awkwardly on Kate’s left hip. Clint was to the right of her with his left arm around Kate’s shoulders so that he could rest his hand on Cooper’s arm. His left hand was in front on Kate’s visibly very pregnant stomach.  The white frame that Tony was holding with both hands had an engraved plaque on the bottom, “Coming Soon – Summer 2008”.

It all made sense. Moments ago, he was wondering about the lack of security in the apartment and the empty bottom shelves to the bookcases. They had a toddler running around and a newborn on the way. What good is the best security system when it was a possible threat to the very people it was installed to protect? Clint and Kate probably only had external measures in place to alarm them of any danger to the home. Ten years of exposure to the elements and lack of maintenance would make any system useless now.

“Tony? Is that baby Lila?” Pepper asked hopefully, but sadly already knew the answer.

Shaking his head at the impossible. “Would have gotten a hit off of Clint, Cooper and myself during the DNA test.”

 “Then where is the little girl who was expected in ‘Summer of 2008”. Taking a deep breath to clear her mind Pepper reasoned. “Ok, so this isn’t all bad. You were attempting to attach Kate to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the wipe. You have accomplished both. However, this does mean she was pregnant when the wipe happened.”

Haven’t yet taken his eyes off the photograph he tiredly responded, “Appears that way. Now we just have to find out where she was at the time of the wipe.”

“What do you mean?”

He reasoned, “She wasn’t here or else she would have seen these pictures and done something to find her husband and son. Kate wasn’t at S.H.I.E.L.D. clearly. “

“And she wasn’t with Cooper because he was in Iowa with Laura, who was expecting Lila.” Pepper finished.

Tony had been thinking the same thing. Lila was born in June of 2008, possibly the same time Kate was due. Tony couldn’t even rely on government documents to help with the exact dates since he now knew they had been tampered with. Tampered by either S.H.I.E.L.D. or someone else. Cooper was already at the farm with Laura from what Clint had told him earlier. Tony started, “Clint said…” but drifted off in thought.

“What?”

The only way any of this would make sense is if someone knew the wipe was going to happen. This was a long play, but what was the game? “Clint told me about the day of the wipe, or at least the part he was ‘permitted’ to remember. Laura called while he was in a briefing on the situation.”

“So?” Pepper asked.

“So, Cooper was acting up while she was on the phone with him. Laura said, and I quote, from Clint of course, ‘I swear he acts like he doesn’t even know who I am’. That’s because he didn’t!”

Pepper was not following at all. “Didn’t what?”

“He didn’t know her!” A light bulb went off in Tony’s head. “Clint said the kid was shy around Laura and clingy with him. It was because he was in a different house with a different mom. Clint was the only person he knew.” Tony held the frame up to Pepper, “He knew this was his mom. He knew who his family was.” Standing up he surveyed the room that was designed to belong to his granddaughter, “And some bastard took him from all of it, away from his mother.”

Having already had a panic attack, Pepper didn’t want Tony to work himself up to another, “Tony…”

“He was three Pepper!” He shouted, but quickly composed himself. “He was three and someone took him from this place.” Indicating the apartment. “They had Cooper, which meant they had Clint. He had the sonogram, he knew another baby was on the way.” Tony walked over to the dresser where one picture remained. “How much do you want to bet that sonogram was a copy of this picture?”

Pepper was processing everything Tony was telling her and arriving at her own conclusions, “But for that to work, someone…”

Tony finished her thought for her, “Someone would have had to know he had it. Yup, it’s an inside job Pep. Clint had a sonogram and I’m pretty sure he showed it around. Kate was also an agent so there would not be a need for anything to be a secret at S.H.I.E.L.D., like Laura and the farm were. People in the agency would have known that Clint and Kate were married with one kid and another on the way.”

“Why would someone do this?”

A lot of work went into rearranging the Barton family for their own purposes. Tony’s thinking turned to Laura Barton, the sweet farmwife. She had to be in on it. She wasn’t a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was wiped so she always knew she wasn’t Cooper’s mother. The more Tony thought about it the worst it appeared for the second Mrs. Barton, “It had to be HYDRA, but I don’t know why. Why was Clint and his family so important that they went to these extremes?” Grabbing his pack off the floor, “I need to go back to the farm tonight. I have to know what happened to Kate and her daughter after the wipe.”

Pepper’s head was spinning, “Clint already told you he doesn’t remember anything, and what are you going to tell him anyways?”

A cunning smile appeared on Tony’s lips, “It’s not Clint I need to speak to, and before I blow up Barton’s life, I would like some more information.”

“Boss.” FRIDAY’s voice spoke from Tony’s phone.

“Yes darling?” he answered.

The system reported, “There has been a call requesting police and emergency services at the Barton residence.”

Tony and Pepper turned to each other mirroring their partner’s look of terror. Tony knew that for Clint or Laura to call 911, there had to be a life or death situation, preparing himself for the worst he asked, “why?”

Immediately FRIDAY answered, “Gunshots fired, poisoning, and fatalities.”

“Prep the jet. We will take off as soon as I get there.” Addressing Pepper, he requested, “Can you drop me off at the airfield?”

“No.” Tony’s eyes went wide in shock of her refusal. “But I can drive to the jet since you are in no condition to drive.” She was right, Tony’s hands were shaking with rage and anxiety, and another panic attack was looming. “Then I will go with you to Iowa and help you find some answers.”

Clutching Pepper’s hand. Tony brought it up to his lips and placed a tender kiss on it while looking her straight in the eyes. “Thank you.”


	11. Chapter Ten ~ Candy Striper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for the wonderful comments! I loved reading them, it keeps me going.

 

Chapter Ten

Never one to know what to do with his free time, Tony was thankful that FRIDAY had created a list of possible S.H.I.E.L.D. activities around the time of the wipe. Flying to Iowa gave Tony the time needed to narrow down the list to three possible events. In Los Angeles, California, a Romanian drug cartel was running a human trafficking ring out of a basement of a Children’s hospital. Four days before the wipe the group was arrested. While very possible for S.H.I.E.L.D. to be involved in, it was hesitant that the arrest of twelve people would have caused the need for the wipe by the World Security Council.

Two days later, the HYDRA research base, The Sandbox, had a contained explosion that gave off a decent amount of gamma radiation. Only a quarter of the facility was demolished at the time. A week later, the entire base was destroyed. The first part matched S.H.I.E.L.D.’s motives perfectly, but the attack a week later wasn’t in any of the agency’s records. Destruction of a HYDRA research lab would have found its way into a missions’ database no matter how secret it was, so Tony was quick to conclude that S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn’t the one who attacked second. The question was who went in afterwards to clean up S.H.I.E.L.D.’s mess?

The third incident was in Germany, an American Congressman was assassinated in Berlin while hosting the grand opening of a new embassy.  The Congressman was rumored to have close professional and personal ties to HYDRA. Someone that deep in Washington would have shown up on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar in a big way. It happened six days prior to the wipe which would have given S.H.I.E.L.D plenty of time to cover it up. A major player in Washington being taken out of the game that way would give the W.S.C. a reason to wipe everyone. Especially considering how imbedded HYDRA was with the Council before the data dump.

Eliminating the Los Angeles’ arrests from the list, Tony was left with two possible causes for the Council to ‘push the button’. He had FRIDAY focus on the explosion and assassination. The computer notified its creator of the results from the hair sample that Tony submitted back in the apartment, which came back unexpectedly fast. The results were just as Tony had expected, Kate was a match to both Cooper and himself. Knowing it was one thing, but having the hard proof was another thing entirely.

“It’s official,” He started as he handed Pepper the tablet that he was reading the results from, “it’s a girl.” They were in a small two-person self-flying jet with the logo of Stark Industries plastered on the sides. Tony had somehow convinced the hospital into allowing him to land the jet on top of the parking garage that connected to the hospital. 

 “Congratulations.” Pepper said somberly as she quickly scanned the tablet’s screen and handed it back to its owner to put away before they arrived. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s activities weren’t the only thing Tony had been working on during their flight. He was also diligently collecting all the information on what had transpired at the Barton home that evening. What Tony was able to collect was very disturbing and she hadn’t yet been able to get past it, at least not until she saw that the children were safe. In a matter of a few days she had obtained a future step-daughter and step-grandson. This evening she learned of a step-granddaughter. Already Pepper had made the promise to herself that she would never use such labels as ‘step’ but embrace them as Tony’s family. In the event Kate was alive, Pepper would make every effort to be a good friend that just happened to be married to Kate’s father. The children were a different matter altogether, she was sure that she and Tony would enjoy every minute of grandparenthood, spoiling the children much to the irritation of their father. That was of course once Tony got past the shock of suddenly being a grandfather.

Waiting until the jet powered down, Tony opened the door and exited. When he had two feet on the ground he turned to assist Pepper while she made her descent. Pointing towards the door that connected the parking garage to the hospital, she followed, and got on the elevator. “Hospital records show them on the fourth level, the pediatric ward, “Tony said pushing the button that would get them there.

“Anything on Clint yet?” Pepper knew the Clint was originally supposed to go with the children to the hospital and give his statement there, but then the government officials arrived on order of Secretary Ross and demanded that he be detained.

“He was taken into the local police station and placed in an interrogation room.”

“He must be worried sick about the kids.” What a horrible situation for a husband and father to be in, Pepper contemplated to herself.

“Probably, I’m just thankful he hasn’t done anything stupid yet.” Tony had hijacked the tracking software to see where Clint was after the attack.  Stark was very surprised to see that Clint didn’t even attempt to tamper with his ankle monitor. His best estimate was that it wouldn’t take Barton longer than five minutes to get out of it if he needed to.

“Like what?”

A ‘ding’ indicated that they had arrived on the fourth floor. “Oh, I don’t know, what could a spy and trained assassin possibly do to get out of a small-town police station if he wanted?”

Tony placed his hand in the elevator door to keep it open for Pepper to step out of. The nurse’s reception area was directly ahead of them. A young woman who couldn’t be any older then twenty-five greeted the pair with a warm smile, Tony supposed that she must have just started her shift. He could see that the floor was crawling with police and people in black suits with ear pieces. The white technology was obvious against the dark colored cloth. He assumed the latter were government agents. Apparently, Tony wasn’t the only person who was unsure of what Clint would do if he really wanted to leave police custody and retrieve his children. He observed that as soon as he stepped out the elevator onto the ward, the suits started speaking into their communication devices. 

“May I help you.” The nurse whose badge said ‘Vicki” inquired.

Pepper decided to handle this since Tony was distracted watching the guards, whose presence didn’t go unnoticed by Pepper either. “Yes please, we are looking for the Barton children. Would you please be kind enough to direct us to their rooms?”

The woman’s smile never fell, “I’m sorry, but no one is allowed to see them without approval from CPS.”

Tony didn’t even know that he had a line, but quickly did when he learned the children were put into ‘the system’. He asked in a voice louder then he intended, “Why is Child Protective Services involved?”

“Sir, please. We have patients sleeping. I ask that you keep your voice down. CPS was called in since there isn’t any immediate family to make the patients’ medical decisions. I’m sorry, but this department’s policy is that if a visitor is not with a patient, they must leave.”

That could have been the nicest ‘get the hell out’ that Tony has ever been on the receiving end of. He was about the take out his phone to wake up a hospital board member when Pepper did her magic on the nurse. “Ma’am, this is Tony Stark, also known as Ironman. I am sure that you have a ward full of children and parents who are sick of staring at the same four walls everyday wishing for something to break up the monotony. What better way to brighten their day then the real Ironman bringing them breakfast?  All we would need is a room to wait in until you start serving. Tony you have a suit correct?”

Damn he loved that woman. The expression on Vicki’s face showed that she was buying it. Currently it was three o’clock in the morning, another four hours and the staff would be starting the breakfast deliveries. He may not be able to get into the Barton children’s room now, but Pepper had found a way to at least keep him on the floor with them until the morning. “I do have a suit. Like Pepper said, we just need an office or something. Can’t be sitting in the waiting room because, well, that would ruin the surprise, wouldn’t it.?”

“Of course, Mr. Stark what a lovely gesture. I would just need to run this by my supervisor.” As Nurse Vicki left, two of the guards positioned themselves on opposite sides of the reception area.  Knowing that they wouldn’t do anything without being provoked, it was the children’s department after all, Tony just gave them a little wave of acknowledgment.

Vicki soon made her reappearance a bit out of breath. That poor lady must have run to her supervisor and back. “Nurse Ridgeway is beyond thrilled at your offer. She is with a patient now but would love to meet with you later. She has offered a small office down the hall that is not being used until the morning shift for you two to wait in. If you’re ready, I would be happy to show it to you.”

Tony was only half listening as he followed behind the two women. He made out Pepper’s remarks of gratitude to Vicki, but really nothing else. He was too busy scanning the floor. Finally, he found his target. There was one patient’s room that had two “Men in Black” posted in front of it. The cold stare that the men threw at him, Tony interpreted as ‘dare you to come over here’. This confirmed in his mind that he had the correct room. The children must be all in the same room since it was the only one guarded. It made sense Tony concluded, it would be easier to prevent unauthorized entries and exits of one room versus three.

His internal discussion was cut off when Pepper ordered, “Tony get inside”, as she held the office door open with one hand and pointed into it with the other. She wasn’t blind, she saw the stare down between the three men, and needed to remove Tony from the likely confrontation that would not only get them kicked off the ward, but probably the hospital as well. With one last look in the guards’ direction, Tony obeyed and entered the office.

The room was the typical hospital office to Tony. There was a desk to the left with a computer on top and two chairs in front. A dorm size refrigerator was behind the desk with a microwave on top. Next to the mini fridge was a small file cabinet with a coffee maker on it complete with cups and fixings. Against the wall to the left was a small couch. The chairs and couch were done in the common teal and pink abstract print fabric that was all the rage in 1986. A strong smell of disinfectant coated the air. Lacking any ventilation in the office, he wondered how long it would take for both Pepper and himself to get a headache from the overpowering odor. As Pepper and the nurse exchanged goodbyes, Tony made himself at home by sitting in the executive chair in front of the computer.

“What are you doing?” Pepper hissed in a low tone while she shut the door.

Looking up over the monitor Tony cynically replied, “I am almost hurt that you have to ask. You should know better by now, I’m tapping into the hospital’s patient records. That was some impressive work you did back there. Remind me to kiss you once I have had the chance to shower and brush my teeth.”

Deciding on one of the chairs in front of the computer, Pepper took a seat, “You do know how to make a girl feel special, I’ll give you that Tony Stark.”

Successfully breaking through the hospital’s firewall and passwords, he had access to the entire computer system. Tony swore to her, “I promise when this is all over you and I are going on a vacation somewhere far away.”

Letting a little smile appear Pepper returned, “Promises, promises.” Returning to the illegal matter at hand, “Find anything in the records database?”

“Yeah, I was able to pull up their vitals and such. Looks like Lila got the worst of it. Cooper was sick and threw up most of the sedative so there is only a trace amount left in his system. Nathanial interestingly enough didn’t have any foreign chemicals found in his blood work.”

Pepper didn’t see why it was interesting, Nate probably had a strict bedtime routine so there wasn’t a need to sedate him. “Why is that interesting?”

“The only kid who wasn’t poisoned was the only child who was actually Laura’s.”

Pepper didn’t even think to factor in the biological connection between Laura and Nate as a likely reason why the toddler was spared. “You think Laura did this?” Pepper could just see it now, Tony was going to go bankrupt with the therapy expenses these children were going to accumulate in the coming years.

Tony leaned back in the chair, “It’s hard to argue another way.” Laura still had not been located. Police were out now looking for her and the car. The poisoning, shooting and missing car all pointed to her or Clint. They were the only two people at the farm who knew and had access to everything.  Hence why Clint was now being interrogated at the police station.

“If it was her, how did she have access to a sedative?”

“Come on Pep, the amount of times Barton gets injured on missions, you don’t think that house isn’t full of pain killers and some muscle relaxers? The part that made the situation extremely dangerous was that the person gave Lila enough of the medication to possibly kill her. The poisoner didn’t adjust for weight, a rookie mistake probably due to lack of time. The amount of a sedative a doctor would prescribe for Clint is vastly different then what would be suggested for Lila.”  

“Will she be alright?” She was still struggling with the concept of someone deciding and carrying out drugging children.

Reading from the patient file, Tony summarized, “They have both Cooper and Lila hooked up to IVs to flush the stuff out. It doesn’t appear as if any permanent damage was done.”

The unlocking of the office’s door caught both by surprised. Tony didn’t know that Pepper had locked the door when she shut it earlier. She probably knew that whatever he was going to do in the office would require notice of any visitor. Quickly shutting off the computer, Tony leaned back in the chair and put his feet on the desk.

A hospital security officer appeared and used his body to prop the door open to allow one of the guards dressed in black in. The suit found a place to stand between the couch and the chairs. This position allowed the man to see absolutely everything that was transpiring in the ten by twelve office. Tony was just about to make a comment about the overkill of security when Secretary Thaddeus Ross entered.

In a condescending voice the salt and peppered headed former Army general started, “Tony, imagine my surprise when I was informed of your visit.”

Matching Ross’ tone, Tony asked, “Which one?” Secretary Ross wasn’t going to catch Tony off guard. He was fully aware that Clint’s detail reported back that he was at the farm earlier today, or was that yesterday? Checking his watch, it was four o’clock in the morning.  

Releasing a chuckle, Ross took the seat next the Pepper and sat, crossing one leg over the other. “Oh, I do want to discuss with you about what you and Barton talked about yesterday, but right now I’m interested currently in your new vocation as a Candy Striper.”

Lacing his fingers and placing it behind his head Tony said, “You know I’m a giver.”

Ross countered quickly. “Such a giver that you flew out here twice in twenty-four hours?”

“I’m a busy man, I have to be in a lot of places within a day. Which is why I own jets.” Tony hadn’t moved from his lax position for the sole intent of showing the Secretary that he was in control of the conversation.

Uncrossing his legs, Ross leaned forward, “Cut the bull Stark! I know why you are here.”

Kicking his feet off the desk, Tony sat up, “Never was hiding it. Asked where the kids were as soon as we got here.” Pepper sent him a worried glance to which he answered with a reassuring smirk. “So, since you are here now, I guess you can speak with Child Protective Services, and have Pepper and I added to the list of allowed visitors?”

Thaddeus resumed his comfortable position and did his best phony attempt of reassuring Tony and Pepper, “I saw the children before I came in here with my own medical staff, the younger two are sleeping, the boy Copper…”

“Cooper” Tony corrected

The Secretary didn’t care, “Whatever, he seemed on edge. My staff believes that he is displaying symptoms of shock, not surprisingly at all considering everything that has happened. The boy refuses to lay down better yet sleep, just sits on his bed watching his siblings rest and clutching his school bag. My doctor has advised me that he plans on giving it another hour, if the kid doesn’t sleep, then they will give him something.”

“Your medical team is prescribing a sedative for a drugging victim? You do see the flaw in that logic correct? Pepper observed.

Ross nodded his head in admission. “I do, but I need the boy in top shape before he speaks to his father tomorrow.”

That sent a shiver down Tony’s spine, he knew there was no way that Ross was letting Clint see his son out of the goodness of his heart, there had to be an angle. “The kids don’t get visitors, but Clint does?”

Ross asked with a slimy smile on his face. “Are you aware that the use of psychological torture is an acceptable method of interrogation?”

Every alarm in Tony’s head was going off. Pepper was staring a hole into the side of his head willing him to look towards her. “No, I actually believe it is anything but acceptable. And I know that the use of children in any of it is strictly prohibited.”

Waving off Stark’s comment, the Secretary continued, “I wasn’t asking for your opinion on the method. As far as the ‘use of children’ goes, it’s all in how you interpret the law. I’m assuming you have read Agent Barton’s file at some point.”

“I may have.” Everyone in the room knew Tony had.

Standing up, Ross began to pace the short distance of the room. “Then you would be fully aware of the fact that Barton’s parents died in a car accident when he was six years old?”

Tony did not like where this was going but pressed on to see if Ross was ignorant enough to tell them his plans. “Yes, the father, Harold, was drunk and crashed the car with the entire family in it. What of it?”

Halting his stride, Thaddeus looked at Tony, “My point is, Clint and his brother were put into foster care following the death of their parents. All because their father essentially killed their mother.

The dots started to connect for Tony, standing up to match the stance of the Secretary he accused, “That’s why you called CPS, so you could use that against Clint? Having experienced “the system” himself, he would never want his children in it. That’s heartless even for you Mr. Secretary.” Tony was quickly thinking of who he could contact about this mistreatment of the children.

Facing his accuser, Ross glowered right into Tony’s eyes. “There is an eerie resemblance between the two unfortunate events, I will give you that Tony. Harold killed Edith Barton and Clint killed Laura Barton.”

“You know that’s not true.” Tony mentally kicked himself for not being able to hide the panic that he knew his face was showing. Ross couldn’t keep Clint in jail after the Airport Fight, and not even after the Raft break out. Finally, the Secretary could capture and jail one of the members of ‘Team Cap’. 

Ross tilted his head to the side and back in disinterest. “Perhaps, but the evidence fits the story. I can even incriminate the rest of them, Rogers, Romanoff, Wilson and Maximoff. I am actually still debating whether or not to charge you as an accessory to the crimes.”

“What evidence do you have against anyone, and why do you need Cooper’s involvement? Hasn’t he been through enough?” Pepper asked remaining seated with her hands grasping the arms of the chair in frustration and anger.

Disregarding Pepper, Thaddeus kept his attention on the man known as Ironman. “I want Clint to look in his first-born’s eyes and know that I am the one in control. I want the boy to ask him ‘where’s mom’ and see how Barton reacts. I want that child in his father’s presence when CPS removes the boy from the room and away from Clint. You see, I’m not trying to interrogate information out of an agent, but a father. I can’t break Agent Barton into telling me where Rogers and his group of criminals are, but ‘daddy’ might.”

Every part of Tony’s body and soul was focused on not killing the man standing in front of him with his bare hands right then and there. Pepper saw the internal struggle her fiancée was experiencing and knew the options that he was weighing. As concerning as that was, she was more concerned about the fact that she didn’t know if she would stop him if he went through with it. 

Ross turned to Pepper to answer the first part of her question, “As far as evidence Miss. Potts, I have plenty. Tony was at the farm mere hours before everything went to shit, then shows up here a few hours later attempting to get access to the children. Is everyone supposed to believe that is just a fluke?  My men back at the farm were killed with a single bullet to the head. Presented to a jury, who do you think they would believe did it? I’ll save you the time, obviously it is the trained sniper. The children were poisoned with medication prescribed to Clint Barton, circumstantial of course, but when added to the rest of the story, it makes it’s point. We may not have Laura’s body, but any decent attorney could provide evidence to show that Clint was trained to never let a body be found.”

“What does this have to do with the rest of the Avengers?” Stark knew he was going to regret asking.

“Who do you think made the 911 call?” Lifting his cell phone up, Ross pressed a button and audio filled the silent room.

_“Hello? I need to report a shooting. There are four men dead, all with gunshot wounds to the head. We have children present who may have been drugged ages thirteen, ten, and three. We need police and medical assistance immediately.”_ Ross hit the button again and the recording stopped.

Tony had of course heard the 911 conversation, and there wasn’t any doubt in his mind who was the voice behind it. “Could have been anyone.”

The Secretary sighed deeply, “Let’s stop playing games, you know as well as I do that it was Sam Wilson. I know they weren’t on the farm with the family when the shootings happened, which can only mean that Barton had to have contacted them. That alone is a violation of his house arrest. He was prohibited from contact with known criminals. Wilson scrambled the signal, so we are unable to currently track the origins of the call. I know that when we do, they won’t be there anymore.”

To gain any ground or control in the situation Tony knew that he would have to concede a few undeniable points. “Yeah, sure, that does sound like Sam. If I was you I wouldn’t even waste the man power on tracking that call because as you said, they will be long gone by the time you have boots on the ground. You spin a nice yarn sir, but it doesn’t hold up.” Tony sat down on the edge of the desk and motioned for Ross to take his seat back.

“First, you lack a motive. Why would Clint pick today of all days to snap? Why hurt the children, in fact why hurt Laura? Second, Clint didn’t tamper with his tracking device at all. I know the first thing I would do if I just went on a killing and drugging spree would be to get the hell out of dodge. Clint didn’t do either. And third…”

“And third, you are a dumb ass for thinking any of this would work Secretary Ross.” Everyone in the room looked towards the source of the comment. Standing within the entrance to the office was Director Nick Fury.


	12. Chapter Eleven ~ He's Been Under Worse

 

Chapter Eleven

“Director Fury.” Secretary Ross greeted and extended his hand while walking over to Nick.

The hospital security personnel could be seen peeking behind Fury but was smart enough to remain outside the office. The government officer who was in the room put his hand on his gun, unclipping the snap that held the weapon in place on his belt. Director Nick Fury stood blocking the doorway with his hands in his pockets ignoring the customary greeting offered by the Secretary.

Fury returned, “Secretary Ross, seems that we have a bit of a problem here. Mr. Stark and Miss. Potts were acting on my behalf to secure the Barton children. They were able to get here clearly faster than I was.  What is the reason that they are in here?”

Tony amused himself by thinking if Fury had two eyes, one would be winking at him to go along with the story. “We decided since the kids were sleeping we would do a little Avengers public relation while we were here. Secretary Ross was kindly helping us bide our time until breakfast with his tales of horrible threats against everyone we know and hold dear, and how he was planning to psychologically scar Clint’s kids later. I would love to say that it’s been fun, but it really hasn’t.”

It was evident on the Secretary’s face that he wasn’t sure if anyone was telling the truth. “I think the better question Nick is why are you here? S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t have any jurisdiction here, especially since there is no longer a S.H.I.E.L.D.”

Laughing in a manner that made the hair on Pepper’s arm stand up, Nick took a few steps into the room. “I used to like bedtime stories as well Thaddeus, but then I turned eight. Whoever you have as your informant must have their information mixed up. S.H.I.E.L.D was never gone, just went underground until we could resurface.”

Ross’s slimy smile returned. Tony was starting to use that facial marker as a tell for when the Secretary thought he had the advantage. “That could very well be so, but it doesn’t change the Bartons’ status. The children are in custody of the government being cared for by CPS under my guidance.”

Nodding his head Nick agreed, “I agree, the children are in the custody of the government, but I’m afraid you have the wrong agency.” Tony was jumping up and down inside. He knew whatever trick Nick was about to pull from behind his eyepatch was going to be awesome. He caught Pepper’s attention and gave her a smile that said, ‘It’s all going to be alright’. He watched as Nick carefully formed his next sentence. “S.H.I.E.L.D. code 52281 subsection B, ‘all offspring of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are immediately put into the guardianship of S.H.I.E.L.D administration in the event the parents are unable to fulfill their parental duties’.”

The smile fell from Thaddeus’ face, “Nice try.”

“No, not a try, it’s happening. Children of agents may be privy to classified information that we cannot have out in the real world. The children must be contained within the agency to be properly vetted prior to finding an alternate placement. You are the Secretary of State. S.H.I.E.L.D. is a global agency. It is you who doesn’t have jurisdiction sir. I have already been in contact with the Secretary of Defense, who may I add is the only American official I have to answer to regarding domestic affairs, he has approved my request. I would very much appreciate it if your medical staff could catch my people up. The children’s health shouldn’t suffer because we have a bit of a disagreement, don’t you agree Secretary?”

Tony leaned over from his perch on the desk to Pepper and whispered, “Were we the only ones who didn’t bring our own medical staff? I feel left out, no one told me.” Pepper cut him off by hitting his arm and shushing him.

“If that is all Mr. Secretary, we don’t want to keep you up. Thank you for supervising the children until we arrived.” This time Nick did extend his hand, and Thaddeus accepted it in defeat and started to leave. “Oh, and Thaddeus.” The Secretary turned to the speaker, “I will also be needing my agent back.”

On a hairpin, Ross turned around and fired back at Fury, “There is no way in hell, absolutely not, he is still under investigation.”

Shrugging his shoulders Fury replied, “Trust me, he’s been under worse.” In any other circumstance Tony would laugh at that. Now he wasn’t sure that what Nick said was just a comment or innuendo and since he now had a daughter in the game, it wasn’t funny.

“You want me to release a man who murdered four of my guards, his wife and poisoned children.” The tension in the room thickened with the modest summary of what took place the day before.

The director repeated, “Like Stark said, you have no motive, not to mention, your evidence sucks. I have my Assistant Director enroute currently to collect Agent Barton from police custody. I would suggest you do as she asks; Assistant Director Hill isn’t as nice as me.”

The ‘tell’ appeared again, “Oh, I have a motive. Agent Barton was cuckolded. Stronger men than him have snapped due to such issues.”

Tony’s eyes got wide, “Wait, who held Clint’s what?  He has only been in prison for maybe six hours?”

Pepper snapped, “Tony shut up!” She knew that Tony’s ‘play on words’ was a lame attempt of his to lightening the mood, but it really wasn’t the time or place.

Director Fury took a long step to close the gap between himself and the Secretary. “If you want to say something, just spit it out man. However, a word of caution, you are speaking about one of my finest employees and a good friend, so tread carefully.”

Ross didn’t allow himself to respond to the attempt of physical intimidation by Nick, “My staff ran the children’s blood work to isolate the sedative that was used in the drugging. Not only were they able to identify the substance but were also able to determine that Clint’s medication was the only thing of his that was in Lila Barton.”

Tony and Pepper looked to each other sharing an alarmed expression. Tony understood at that moment that this was probably the first time any of the Barton spawns have had their blood work done in a public medical facility. Clint undoubtedly had S.H.I.E.L.D. handle all the kids medical needs to avoid exposure of the family. Of course, Ross would have jumped at the opportunity to dissect the results.

Thaddeus continued to justify his actions, “Agent Barton spent a lot of the children’s early years away working. It was in the last two years that he became more of a stable presence in the home because of house arrest. Clint spending more time with the girl, caused him to suspect something wasn’t right. A man with Barton’s resources would be able to run a test without any barriers. Once he found out that his daughter was another man’s he acted out and killed his wife. This would also explain why Lila received the heaviest of the medication.”

That accusation hung heavy in the air within the silent room. The Director and Secretary were still imbedded in their staring contest, it was Fury who broke the silence, “Well then, I guess you are not only a stupid ass, but also a half ass for stopping at matching Miss. Barton to her father. If your people did their job properly they would have notice she doesn’t match her brothers or mother either. So, I would suggest before making false statements about a man’s wife, you be more thorough in your research.”

 “You’re covering for him.”

“Sadly, you will never know. Again, it’s out of your jurisdiction.  In the faith of interdepartmental collaboration, please see that your people work with mine regarding the Secretary of Defense’s orders.” Glancing at his watch, “I have to apologize Mr. Secretary, I have taken up too much of your time as it is, and you still have a lot to do. I won’t be taking up any more.”

Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross didn’t get to where he was by picking the battles he knew he would lose. This opportunity slipped through his fingers but there would be another one, and soon. The tragedy of the Barton family would cause certain people to come out of hiding, and when they did, he would be there. “Yes, of course Director. I will instruct my team to provide you with the children’s medical records and release Agent Barton into your care.” Showing that he was raised with manners, the Secretary said his partings, “Good bye Director, Tony, Miss. Potts.” With a final nod to his bodyguard, Secretary Ross finally left.

Tony rushed over to the door and checked the hallway for anyone remaining behind to eavesdrop on their conversation. Satisfied that no one was there, he shut and locked the door. “Natasha sent you.” It was a statement not a question. Tony had expected Natasha to kidnap the kids during the night, probably while Steve was breaking Clint out of jail again.

Fury removed his black leather jacket and draped it over his arm then sat down on the couch. “She was on the phone with Barton when he discovered the guards dead.”

Pepper, deciding that she had been sitting for far too long stood up and walked behind the desk to start up the coffee maker, casually stating as she did so, “I’m surprised she isn’t here. From what Tony has told me, she loves that family as her own.”

Leaning back to sink into the cushions of the couch Nick informed, “She knows that I can only play this card once. I can’t bail out every Avenger that Ross collects in his travels. Clint was technically retired from the Avengers and with a little creative backlogging on our agency’s personnel files, Clint was being used as a consultant for S.H.I.E.L.D. since the house arrest started, so the United Nations can’t do anything to him without the agency’s approval. Believe me, if Romanoff needed to be in this hospital she would be. It wouldn’t matter if Ross was present or not.” Returning his attention to the people in the office, “I thought it would be best to minimize the people involved given the nature of the evidence.”

Fury was referring to Lila’s paternity, Tony didn’t even want to think about what Natasha would have done if she was in the office when Ross started bragging about obtaining that information. “So, you know?”

In the typical Director Fury, ‘I’ll answer your question with a question’, spy technique, he responded, “I know everything Stark, so I will need you to be more specific.”

“About Lila?”

“Yes, I know. I’m hearing rumblings that you are investigating the wipe of 2008, a dangerous rabbit hole to enter.”

 “Getting that.” Pushing himself off the door he was propping himself against, Tony propelled forward to the seats that Pepper and Ross vacated earlier. “Does Clint know any of this?” He arranged both chairs so that they were facing the couch now, a bit cozier, Tony thought to himself.  

“No, could never find the words. In the beginning I was of the same belief as Ross, pretty farmwife, husband away for months at a time. There are some who wouldn’t blame her for straying. But damn if Clint didn’t love her, and the kids. I had no right to mess with his home.” It was probably the sincerest that Nick Fury had ever been with Tony. He knew that the director had it in him, Nick had a similar ‘talk’ with Tony about his father years ago, but not as ‘raw’ as this one.

Positioning himself in the chair, Tony rested his elbows on his knees and cupped his face in between his hands. “And how do you know any of this, weren’t you wiped as well?”

“While you have only had a few days to sniff around this, I have had ten years. Do you really think I would let the wipe happen and move on? Every second I had to spare when I wasn’t maintaining the safety of the world as Director was dedicated to my search for the reason why it happened. Things really didn’t start to click until after the Battle of New York and got a hell of a lot clearer after the data dump. Following the dump, I went underground by playing dead and was found pretty damn quickly.”

Pepper rejoined the men with three cups of coffee. It had been a long night and morning, and she didn’t see an end coming anytime soon. “How were you found?”

Nodding his ‘thanks’, Nick took the cup and answered. “I went to visit my godchildren at their family’s farm, to test a theory.”

“Clint’s home?” The idea of Nick playing Godfather was straight up hilarious to Tony.

“Yes, a place that had always been a safehouse. Wanted to see if it was still safe after my “death” at the hands of HYDRA.”

Finishing the story for him, Pepper resolved, “I’m assuming it wasn’t.”

“It was until I left the house. I was attacked about ten miles out from the homestead. They were waiting for me.”

“Laura?” Tony asked.

Nick confirmed with a head nod, “Laura. That one hurt more than losing my eye. The woman was never anything but kind. Even did my laundry for me. She washed my underwear for the love of God, that was sacred.”

“Clint was clueless?” The questions were forming faster than Tony could ask them. How could a highly trained spy and assassin not know what was going on under his very roof, and for ten years?

The way Nick was looking at Tony made Stark think that the Director was reading his mind. “It was the perfect cover. Something we never even thought about, better yet trained our agents to deal with. Clint was being groomed to one day be the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, and he would have done a great job. What better way to infiltrate the top then by starting at the bottom? By the time Clint was in power, Laura would be untouchable. HYDRA had people on the Council and with Laura, someone in a position of power in S.H.I.E.L.D. There would have been no end to their capabilities. Everyone in the agency was wiped, a woman claiming to be the wife, pregnant with baby number two, and a son who calls you ‘daddy’, it’s hard to not believe that they aren’t telling the truth.”

Stark was quick to respond, “Cooper was telling the truth, but how does Lila fit into this?”

“Yeah, he was.” Nick settled apologetically. “My best guess is that Laura was faking her pregnancy with Lila. Clint only saw her pregnant for two days. It would be easy enough to hide for that amount of time. At the ‘birth’, HYDRA procures a child and she passes it off as hers.”

Taking the seat next to Tony as she passed him a cup, Pepper asked her own question, “What happened after she found out that her planned attack on you didn’t work?”

“I don’t have anything to prove it, but I believe Laura knew after I survived that she had to strengthen her cover in case Clint started to suspect her. In the intelligence world we call it a blood cover. Something that strengthens the bond between the spy and their target. Something that the two have a common interest in.”

Another light bulb went off in Tony’s head, “Nathaniel. Damn, just when I thought we hit the bottom of this well of insanity, there is another three hundred feet to fall. You said that Clint was being trained for your job, what changed?”

“Loki and New York. Clint shot the current Director and attempted to kill the Assistant Director in a car chase. Not to mention the hundreds of people who were on the helicarrier who almost died when he blew it up to free Loki. Shit like that hurts morale. It was apparent that the organization wouldn’t trust him as their leader after that, mind control or not.” A heavy uncomfortable pause settled among the room’s occupants until Fury asked Tony a question for a change. “You just told me that you knew Cooper was telling the truth to Clint all those years ago, what do you know?”

“You know what they say about idle hands. Pepper is running the company, and I do love a puzzle.”

Pepper was tired. The adrenalin she had been using to get by these long hours was wearing down.  “Tony, just tell him maybe he can assist.”

Admitting defeat, Tony confessed. “Fine, I was investigating Katherine Bishop.”

The Director’s eye brows rose in comprehension. “Now it’s all coming together. Tell me, is that why you went to Clint’s?”

“It was one of the reasons, he didn’t know anything.” Tony wondered, how was Kate’s involvement making the picture clearer to Fury?

“Does he know anything now?” Tony shook his head in answer, much to the quiet relief of Nick. Tony didn’t want to go into the will, apartment deed, and facial comparison data that he had shown Clint. “Good, probably not going to be able to keep it that way for much longer. Especially since you blew Laura’s cover which caused this turn of events. I would rather that information come from me.” Tony looked away in guilt, as he put all the pieces together and realized that his presence and actions at the farm earlier had set this in motion. The Director’s intent wasn’t to blame Tony or to cause him to feel guilty. “I’m not saying this was your fault. A cover like this could not be maintained forever, ten years was a damn good run if you ask me.”

A cover? Tony thought as the feeling of anger swelled up inside of him. A cover is what Natasha did when she came to Stark Industries as his new assistant. What Laura and HYDRA had done was not a cover, it was psychological abuse to Clint and his children. Who knew how any of them would handle this when everything was over and done with. Then there was Kate, there was no telling what condition she was in. Odds are that HYDRA didn’t set her up on a farm somewhere. It was the stuff that nightmares are made of. “Do you have any idea why this all happened? I get that HYDRA wanted someone with Clint as an informant. That would explain why some of Caps more recent missions have not worked out as planned. Natasha must have been talking to Clint, and he told Laura. HYDRA must have known the wipe was about to happen and placed Laura and Cooper at the farm prior to pushing the button. Two birds, one stone.”

Nick unearthed his cellphone from his draped jacket’s numerous folds and pockets, scrolling through his screen, he typed something and stated coolly, “Tony, what you had uncovered in less than a week took me years. There are undoubtedly some things you know that I don’t and vice versa. Tell me what you know, and I will do my best to fill in some gaps.”

It seemed like a good deal to Tony, “I have it narrowed down to a politician being killed who was in with HYDRA and a contained gamma explosion at a HYDRA research lab. One of these events caused the W.S.C. to wipe everyone.”

Fury looked up from his cellphone, placing it screen down on his thigh and followed up, “Did the assassination in your research lead you to any conclusion that HYDRA was negatively impacted?”

“No, at least there wasn’t any evidence of a lasting impact.” Tony admitted. The assassination was his best guess of a wipe cause and Nick’s response dashed any hope in that theory.

Processing the information Nick surmised, “So, you are left with a contained explosion of a research base operated by HYDRA that contaminated the area with gamma radiation in 2008. Anything else happen that year involving gamma radiation?”

Tony searched his mind, he was exhausted emotionally and physically. “Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything.”

Pepper impatiently answered, “Bruce Banner came out of hiding; the world was introduced to the Hulk.”

Giving Pepper with a small smile, the director stated, “Very good Miss. Potts. The Hulk made his first appearance, but he wasn’t the only one.”

Tony stood up and shouted, “Thunderbolt Ross!” The military nickname for Secretary Thaddeus Ross. “He tested Bruce’s serum on one of his men.”

The director acknowledged Tony’s statement, “And the world changed for the worst.”

Stark started to pace. Pacing always helped him to process intel and new intel was arriving by the second needing to be understood and connected with the whole picture. “Because it was used as a military weapon. HYDRA saw what happened in Harlem and wanted to replicate it.”

Watching Tony pace back and forth Pepper added, “If HYDRA was successful, who knows what would have happened. A contained blast would take out all their research and any samples they may have created. Especially if they were so far in their research that it was being tested on humans”

“Gold star for you.” Nick rewarded to Pepper.

“Yeah, she’s brilliant.” Pepper cut her eyes sharply to Tony. “Sorry, however there was a second blast that I don’t think your people were responsible for.”

“I know we weren’t the ones, but I know who did. It was a group with similar objectives as S.H.I.E.L.D. and I appreciate their assistance during a time where S.H.I.E.L.D. was weakened.”

Tony would bet his entire company that there was a lot more to Nick’s answer about the second attack.  The information that Fury did provide aided in Tony’s conclusion of the reasoning behind the wipe.  “There would have been no way in hell that HYDRA would be able to obtain the duplicate of Bruce’s serum without government input, specifically the World Security Council. The Sandbox mission exposed the depth of HYDRA’s cover in the Council. That would justify a wipe, they were ensuring their job security. But of course, this is all just a bunch of assumptions, we need proof.”

Standing up Nick rolled his neck from side to side getting the kinks out. He was half way around the world when Natasha contacted him. “Would copies of the research being sent to an anonymous database that didn’t have any connection to S.H.I.E.L.D. suffice you?”

Tony had to blink twice before what Fury had said sunk in, “Very much so, however, it seems impossible that such a database would exist. For anyone to successfully accomplish anything like that, they would need access to numerous mainframes at the same time, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s, HYDRA’s and the anonymous one.  Not to mention the person doing it would have to be the best encryption specialist and decoder ever, especially doing that in a hostile situation. Everything I have looked at doesn’t even hint at another database, and I am the best.”

Nick walked over to where Tony was standing next to Pepper, he looked Stark dead in the eyes, “Yes, you were. But then again, science was your passion, not math. Remember, at S.H.I.E.L.D. we only recruit the best.”

“Kate?” Tony asked in almost a whisper.

Fury dipped his head in affirmation, “How do you think I knew who she was? The Council was exposed, she knew she couldn’t send the intel through proper channels. It was a crazy ass move that ended in an explosion when HYDRA tracked her location and computer activities, but the mission was a success. The apple really didn’t fall far from the tree Tony, you would have been proud of her. She saw what was happening at the base and acted to save the world.”

“She was pregnant, why the hell was she even on the mission.” Pepper accused.

Nick looked to Pepper to acknowledge her question but returned his attention to Tony and answered. “I said it earlier, we only hire the best. I don’t know the details of the mission profile obviously. I can only hypothesize off the evidence I had accumulated throughout the years. I do know the best practices within the agency regarding medical conditions and participating in missions. Kate’s involvement on the mission must have been critical, a major player in the successfulness of the mission. We wouldn’t have just sent her in. We would have made every attempt to ensure her safety at all times.”

Sometimes you must be careful what you wish for. Tony had been searching for Kate’s involvement with S.H.I.E.L.D. and now he had most of his questions answered. “Then why wasn’t she at S.H.I.E.L.D. when the wipe happened? The events are days apart.”

Breaking off the eye contact with Tony, Nick stated, “Like I said, we would have attempted to ensure her safety, but that doesn’t mean we were able to.”


	13. Chapter Twelve ~ Serving Breakfast

 

Chapter Twelve

Assistant Director Maria Hill walked into the interrogation room with two S.H.I.E.L.D agents flanking her along with Mr. Townsend who was a representative from the Department of Defense. Her entrance was a shock to the government agents who were questioning Clint. “Thank you, but Agent Barton is now in the custody of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division. We can take it from here.”

Both interrogators stood up to face the intruders, the man on the right was hesitant but said, “Excuse me but this is a closed interrogation.”

Hill was expecting some resistance but wasn’t in the mood for it. “Yes, it is closed to you. Please Mr. Townsend, explain the Secretary’s order to the gentleman…outside.” Townsend showed his identification to the men and motioned for them to leave the room. Without any additional instructions, the officials left. Maria waited until the door closed before taking a seat opposite Clint at the interrogation table. She hadn’t seen Clint in almost three years, not a lot of time for someone to change, at least physically. Hill chalked it up to the recent events as of the reason the man looked like he had aged ten years. Clint’s hands were handcuffed and chained to the table, as were his feet. Without a single word to anyone Maria gestured to the restraints and one of the agents stepped forward to unlock the shackles.

Once his hands were released Clint started to rub the circulation back into his wrist, “How bad is it Maria?”

Maria looked at the man in front of her. He was drowning and begging her to throw him a life preserver. “Clint you are too good of an agent to ask me that question, and I’m too good of a friend to answer it.”

“But, Laura?” he asked in a barely audible whisper.

“We are looking for her, we will find her. I know it is asking the impossible but try not to think about her right now. The children are fine. Medical is just about to clear them for discharge.”

“They’re alright, really?”

“I wouldn’t lie to you about that.” She would about a lot of other things, but not the health of his children. “Director Fury is with them.” She hesitated for a moment then added, “As are Tony Stark and Pepper Potts.”

“What the hell are Tony and Pepper doing there?”

“Frankly Clint, I think Tony feels guilty. His visit to the farm yesterday is probably what triggered the events of last night. Director Fury messaged me that he walked in on Stark and Secretary Ross ‘having it out’ over the children.”

“Ross” Clint hissed out. “He was supposed to show up this morning to question me with some irrefutable evidence on why I killed Laura and drugged the kids. Least I forget, also killed four innocent men who were just doing their jobs. What did he want with my kids?”

Director Fury did fill Maria in a little bit about Ross’ sick plan, but it was probably for the best to generalize it for Clint. “Nothing good, but Tony and the Director stopped it.”

Clint knew there was a lot more to it than ‘nothing good’, but he also knew that there would be no way in hell that Nick Fury would let anything bad happen to his children, so he would let it go for right now, but he and Secretary Ross were far from done. “I want to see them.”

Maria nodded, “We are going to meet up with the Director and your kids at the airport.” With that said, Agent Hill stood up and walked towards the door, “Oh, and if anyone asks, you have been a S.H.I.E.L.D. consultant for the past two years,”

“United Nations loophole?” Clint asked as he politely pushed in his chair before leaving.

Giving Clint a small sad smile, Hill confirmed, “United Nations loophole. Your house arrest has been lifted, let’s go.”

Shaking his head, Clint followed Maria out of the room, “Thank you for sitting on that one for two years.”

~~~~~

“So, she is dead?” Tony asked lowering his head and stared at the factory grade carpet that covered the floor of the small office he had been inside of for hours.  He said that he would stop once he had a body or a witness to the death of Kate, and Nick’s testimony seemed to be the closest he would get.

Fury placed his right hand on Tony’s left shoulder. The Director lowered his own head to meet Tony’s eyes, willing the man to look up at him, “No Tony, your daughter isn’t dead.”

Of course, Nick Fury knew Kate was Tony’s daughter. This man’s secrets had secrets. As hope and tears filled Starks eyes he asked, “How did you know, who she was I mean?”:

Removing his hand, the Director remembered a time before the wipe, “Peggy Carter was always interested in Kate and worked tirelessly trying to persuade your father into recruiting her once she got old enough.”

“My father?” Tony’s parents knew about Tony and Eleanor and the ‘situation they created’ as his mother delicately phrased it all those years ago. Howard and Maria Stark never spoke of it again once Eleanor and Derek were married. Tony just plain put it out of his head, believing he had dodged a bullet.  He never thought about his parents following the child through her life, but it didn’t surprise him. His mother would have made sure the child was cared for and loved as any grandmother, involved or not, would do. His father on the other hand would have watched the child with an interest to see just how much ‘Stark’ she had in her.

“Howard had a ‘Stark ban’ on S.H.I.E.L.D. He was very clear that you and Kate were never to be involved in the organization.” Nick had spoken to Tony before about Howard not wanting Tony in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s affairs, he had conveniently omitted the inclusion of Kate in the discussion. 

“And yet here I am, and Kate was.” Tony knew about his father’s wishes, but it extending to Kate meant that his father knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. would want her at some point. It signified that Howard had to know that Kate’s strengths and abilities would align with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s objectives. Tony wondered if his parents had ever met their only grandchild, it was a small city. His mother would have bumped into the Bishop family during any of her numerous charity fundraisers. What relationship did his mother have with his daughter? Just how disappointed had Maria Stark been with her son for his reckless behavior that prevented her from openly playing the dutiful grandmother?

“Yeah, but you are stubborn,” Nick accused as he took out his phone again and appeared to be sending a message, then added, “and Peggy was too.”

“What does that mean?” Pepper asked, attempting to take some pressure off Tony. She knew that he was dealing with a lot now, separating the actions of the past from the happenings of the present.

Putting his phone away Nick answered Tony’s fiancée. “It means that Peggy assumed that Howard’s orders ended with him. As soon as Kate was enrolled in college, Peggy started sending me to recruit her.” Nick hated to say anything bad about Peggy Carter, but he believed then, and still believed today, that it was an ill-timed move to make in the wake of Howard and Maria’s death.

There was a knock on the door. Fury went over to open it to be confronted with a member of the S.H.I.E.L.D. medical staff. “Sir?” The man in a white coat asked as Director Fury ushered him into the office, this time leaving the door open.

Nick made the introductions, “This is Doctor Simmons, I brought him to lead the medical team. Dr. Simmons, this is Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. You may speak freely in front of them. They are concerned parties.”

 Dr. Simmons shook both Pepper and Tony’s hand. Returning to his boss, he filled the director in of his finding since taking over from Secretary Ross’ team. “The latest blood work shows that the ‘rapid detox’ of the IV treatment worked wonderfully. The children do not have any traces of the drug in their systems.”

“So, Lila woke up?” Pepper asked enthusiastically, the relief clear on her face and in her voice.

“Yes ma’am. All three children are awake and very responsive.” The doctor returned to the Director, “I would like to recommend a therapist to speak to them. They have a lot of questions.”

“I’m sure they do, why should they be any different than the rest of us?” Tony said not so quietly to himself to which he received annoyed looks from everyone in the room.

Nick Fury indicated for the doctor to ignore Stark’s remark and continue, “The eldest,” checking his notes on the medical tablet, “Cooper Barton recognized the S.H.I.E.L.D badge on my coat.” The doctor pointed to the logo that was embroidered onto the pocket on the lab coat under his name. “He asked to speak to the team leader.”

Nick looked to Tony and Pepper and gestured to the door, “Shall we?”

Tony, always the gentleman allowed Pepper to be the first person out, following her, he looked out into the hallway and proclaimed, “About damn time.”

Without needing to be told which room the children were in, Tony got in front of Pepper to the room where the guards had earlier been stationed. The room was still being protected but the men in black suits had been replaced by men dressed in the familiar S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform. The men must have recognized him, or a better guess would be that Nick Fury was right behind him, because the men moved from the door and silently permitted entrance.

The sight that Tony was greeted with in the hospital room was a comforting one. All three children were in one of the hospital beds, watching cartoons on the television that was placed high up on the wall. Nathaniel sat comfortably between his brother, who as Ross stated earlier was holding a black backpack, and his sister. Abandoned, was the second bed that was separated from the occupied one by a recliner and a crib below the television.

Putting on his ‘game face’ Tony alerted the children to his arrival, “Hey little agents, long time no see!”

“Uncle Tony” Lila screamed as she jumped out of the bed and into his arms. Tony had never been hugged by a child, better yet Lila Barton. He assumed her actions were because she was scared to wake up in the hospital and relieved to finally see a familiar face.

Nick and Pepper entered behind him. That was when Cooper’s face lit up, but then became blank. He had to control his voice to hide the fright and exhaustion. The boy greeted the Director, “Uncle Nick.”

Tony watched Cooper’s behavior from over Lila’s shoulder since the girl refused to release the death grip on him. He resolved that Cooper was trying to act like Clint. Tony thought back to the pictures that were displayed in the apartment of his milestones as an infant and toddler. The pictures of Kate’s little boy compared to the present before Tony’s very eyes. A child trying to be a man, trying to protect his siblings, trying to be strong. Not trying, he was strong. Even if he wasn’t Tony’s grandson, he would still be damn proud of the kid. 

Nate made eye contact with the only woman in the room and put his hands up, “up”. Pepper took the cue and picked the toddler up and sat down in the recliner with him. Whispering things into the boy’s ears that no one could hear. Tony thought that Pepper looked so natural holding and comforting a child. That left Cooper alone in the bed, still clutching the bag.

“Hey Coop,” Tony called out waiting for the child to make eye contact with him, “why don’t you put that bag down and rest. We are here, no one will take it.”

Tony froze when he saw the alarm set in Cooper’s eyes. The blue eyes of the barely teenage boy darted between Tony and Nick, “No, I can’t. Aunt Nat.”

“Natasha told you not to let go of the bag, correct?” Nick asked, and the boy nodded. Nick looked to Pepper and Tony, “It’s a bug out bag in case anything happened. It has everything the kids would need if they escaped.”

Prying Lila from him, Tony said in disbelief, “What the hell? They are children. What do you mean if they had to escape?”

Nick defended, “Clint trained Cooper what to do in a situation such as this, and I am happy to see that Cooper did his job perfectly. I’m sure that when I tell your father and Aunt Natasha about this, they will be very proud.”

“Well, grandpa isn’t exactly over the moon about it.” Tony said under his breath and was relieved to see that no one had heard him. Lila was now holding his hand and swinging it.

“I know you have a lot of questions. That was some scary shit you went through, and I would be lying if I said it was over. As soon as you guys get some food in your bellies and discharged, I will be taking you all to New York. Cooper, I know you haven’t slept at all, so why don’t you get some kip before breakfast arrives?” Nick was sure to use Clint’s word for nap with Cooper to enforce the necessity for him to take one. Pepper felt the need to comment on Nick’s language choices but kept it to herself when she saw the Cooper was responding to the Director. Cooper understood the message and obeyed, he handed his bag to Fury and lied down. 

Tony watched the exchange between Cooper and Fury. It didn’t take long before the room was filled with the deep breathing of a sleeping Cooper. Tony took this opportunity to finish his conversation with Nick. “Pepper do you mind sitting in here with Lila and Nathaniel while I speak to Nick in the hallway?”

Reaching for Lila’s hand, Pepper replied, “Of course, we will just wait in here.”

The two men walked into the hallway, it was still early which meant that there were not a lot of people around. Nick knew that Tony wanted the whole story about what happened to Kate, and he was willing to tell Stark what he knew.

Tony started, “So, Kate is not dead. How is she not dead if she was in the explosion?”

Shaking his head at the conundrum Nick responded, “I don’t know how she survived, but she did. HYDRA grabbed her after the explosion. They held her for a week before she was rescued,”

“By _‘a group with similar objectives as S.H.I.E.L.D?’_ ” Tony asked, using the Director’s words from earlier.

“Yes, that group. I didn’t know about Kate’s rescue until recently, up until then I just assumed she died in the explosion.” Fury said rubbing his hand over his eye.

The short answers were eating away at Tony’s patience, “What changed recently?”

Checking his surroundings, he pulled Tony by the upper arm away from the S.H.I.E.L.D. guards to a small alcove a bit down the hallway and started, “Two years ago, I was contacted by an informant I used occasionally. The guy, Paul, is well known to always have his ear to the ground. Not only is he a good source of reliable information, but he also has a talent for setting up meetings between people who normally wouldn’t. Long story short,”

“Too late.” Tony observed dryly.

“As I was saying, my guy got a hold of me. Everyone knew S.H.I.E.L.D. was up and running again to a degree after the whole Ultron chaos. A party Paul was representing didn’t want to contact me through official channels, so they used him to initiate contact. The group had an employee, who was injured and required a CT Scan. When they were studying the scan, they discovered an implant on the brain that they were able to track back to S.H.I.E.L.D. They weren’t contacting me to return the agent, but to ask for any medical records the agency may have had on the person in question. They made that part very clear, the former agent was going to be remaining with them due to the ‘uniqueness of the situation’.”

“It was Kate.” Tony felt for the first time in the last twenty-four hours his heart return to a normal rhythm. She was alive and being care for by the ‘group’.  “Hold on, HYDRA never contacted S.H.I.E.L.D. for a ransom or anything?” Tony would have thought that HYDRA having an agent like Kate in their hands would have been an advantage to any dealings between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the terrorist organization.

Nick really hated this conversation. It was everything he hated, HYDRA winning in a strange sort of way, innocent people being hurt, and someone else having to clean up his agency’s mess. Fury knew that as hard as it was to explain everything to Tony, it would be nothing compared to having the same discussion with Clint which would have to happen sooner rather than later. “They weren’t interested in the fact that she was S.H.I.E.L.D. HYDRA had been conducting human experimentation with Banner’s research without any success and suddenly, a pregnant woman is there. A woman, who is basically given a quadruple blast of the serum in pure energy form along with her unborn child, and both survived. It was the answer to their prayers.”

“The baby survived?” Tony questioned in confusion. It was beyond anything he could have hoped for given everything that had happened. When he heard about the explosion and capture, he just assumed the worst.

“Yes, she did, hence the ‘uniqueness’ of the situation that prohibited mother and baby from returning to the agency, well that and HYDRA.” Nick quickly added the last part. HYDRA was still a threat. Even more so now that Laura was involved in the mix.  From the conversation Fury had with Natasha he knew that Clint was asking about Kate Bishop. It was highly likely that Clint had also asked Laura. By now Laura was probably debriefing with her people and informing them of the Kate search. HYDRA had to know that S.H.I.E.L.D. was linking the wipe to them and odds were that the organization was planning accordingly hoping that it would cause Kate and her child to resurface. Not to mention that Laura would be wanting Nathaniel back. The entire thing was a cluster. “Tony, the gamma radiation that Kate was exposed to in the blast affected her and the infant in different ways. Kate got the worst of it and there is no good way to put it, but she has been living with gamma radiation poisoning for the past ten years.”

And just like that, any optimism that Tony had shattered. “Oh my God.” And there was the fast heart pace again, “And the child?”

Now Nick had to get into the science of the whole mess, which he knew would require follow up questions from the science genius that Nick wouldn’t be able to answer. “Somewhere in the child’s DNA was what is referred to as a dormant X-gene that Kate didn’t have, which means it was on Clint’s side. Have you ever heard of it?”

Tony had, but that area of study was more Bruce’s thing. “Just in published studies. I read up on it when Wanda Maximoff joined the Avengers. It’s the mutant gene. It is dormant until activation which can be prompted by age, puberty, stress, or trauma. Millions of people have it and live their whole lives without the gene being activated.”

‘Here we go’ thought the Director, “Millions of people weren’t born premature in a HYDRA research base and tested on moments later.”

“Please explain what you mean by ‘tested on’,” Tony requested in a cold tone.

Director Fury put his right hand up to stop Tony before he proceeded, “Now isn’t the time to get into all of that. Just know that the infant was activated almost at birth. From what I have been told, it’s a first for the mutant world. They are safe with a group of similar people who are not only teaching the child how to control her ‘enhancements’ but keeping Kate alive with a drug protocol.”

Tony demanded of the Director, “Where are they now?”

“It’s a special school in upstate New York. The girl is enrolled as a student and Kate is employed there as a math teacher. Tony, they are safe there. I promise you that. “Tony believed Nick and allowed him to continue without interruption. “HYDRA never stopped looking for them. I’m positive they know Kate and her daughter are in the school, but HYDRA doesn’t have the man power to infiltrate the grounds. The moment they leave, that kid would be a target. Kate also needs the medical attention that can only be provided by the staff on campus. That is the way it is, accept it or not, but it’s for the best. Hell, if Banner was around to assist in a cure, and the Avengers were still together to provide protection, it could be an entirely different story but it’s not.”

Tony was about to ask no less than ten follow up questions when a voice behind him requested his attention. Turning around he found the voice belonged to Nurse Vicki. “Mr. Stark, we are about ready to start serving breakfast.”

“What?” Tony asked confused then he swiftly remembered, “Oh yeah, breakfast, let me get the suit on and I will be right there.” Vicki smiled and started to leave.

“Ma’am,” Fury asked to call the nurse back, “Could you please start the discharge process for the Barton children? I would like to get them back to their father soon.”

Vicki smiled at the Director. This woman must really love her job Tony assumed, cause here she was in the middle of her shift and still smiling. The world needed more people like Nurse Vicki. “It has already been started sir. Shouldn’t take too much longer. They should be ready to go by the time the kids finish their meals.”

Fury offered his hand to the Nurse which she happily accepted and shook. Releasing the handshake, the nurse looked down into her palm to see a business card with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo embossed onto it, had been placed there. Vicki looked up at the Director confused as he said, “Thank you very much. I know that this hasn’t exactly been an easy situation for you or your staff, but please know that the government appreciates it and your work here today won’t be forgotten.”

As the puzzled nurse left, Pepper joined them in the hallway, “They are starving, when is breakfast going to be served?”

“I would assume as soon as I deliver it, now wouldn’t it?” A smile appeared on Pepper’s face. She had forgotten the deal she made so they could stay in the ward. Tony was pressing a sequence into the bracelet on his wrist that would produce the Ironman suit, “So, I will meet you all back in New York. Pepper do you mind riding with them? Just so Nick and Clint have an extra set of hands with the kids? Where exactly are you going, S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters?”

“At the Avengers’ compound does Clint still have rooms there?” Director Fury inquired. Tony nodded his head. Each of the Avengers had a set of rooms inside the compound. Nick followed up, “Would it accommodate the kids?”

“I can ask Vision and Rhodes to work on it. With FRIDAY’s help it shouldn’t take long at all, can have it done by the time everyone arrives. Since I am going to be busy serving breakfast, Pepper would you see to it?” Pepper bobbed her head at Tony’s request already mentally writing a list of things that would need to be brought and done to make the compound ‘kid friendly’.

“Good, you do that. I think the compound would be the safest option now. We don’t know if Ross is going to try anything else, and honestly, I don’t think we have heard the last of Laura.” The Director explained cryptically in the manner that Tony was used to, but Pepper was not.

Tony was more than willing to let Fury take the lead on this as long as it resulted in him getting what he wanted and soon. He just needed to know where the man stood on certain issues before Tony saw Clint again. “So, you’re not planning on telling Clint about them, Kate and the baby?”

“What?” The mention of Kate and the missing child broke Pepper out of her concentration. Tony gave her that look of ‘tell you later’ which she accepted.

“Not today I’m not. The man will be dealing with a lot in the coming hours. Throwing a first wife and another daughter at him may be too much to handle all at once.” Pepper didn’t have nearly as much information as she needed to be an active participant in the conversation. She trusted the two men but had some conflicting feelings about withholding such valuable information from Clint. Nick Fury must have known what she was thinking and resumed, “I’m not saying that he won’t be told, let’s just give him some time to process everything on his plate first before we hand him anything else.” Addressing Tony, “I’m not asking you to drop this, I know you won’t. If I was in your shoes I wouldn’t. I am just asking that you wait to make your next move until everyone is safe back at the compound.”

That, Tony could promise to do. It was a realistic request. With a final tap on his bracelet, the Ironman suit pieces appeared and attached to Tony. Once the suit had completed its assembly and was ready to go, Tony opened the face mask to ask Nick a question. “These people who saved Kate and the baby, and run the school, they got a name?”

 “Yeah, they have a name,” Nick Fury answered with a smile, “they call themselves the X-Men.”

 

 


	14. Chapter Thirteen ~ A Minimum Average of Thirty Seconds

 

Chapter Thirteen

The drive from the hospital to the small rural airfield had taken less than forty minutes. Nick Fury had been driving the large SUV that Pepper wouldn’t be surprised to learn was fitted out in all types of defense weaponry. It was just her, Nick and the children in this vehicle, her in the passenger seat and the children in the back two rows.  Fury hadn’t trusted anyone but himself to safely deliver the children to Clint. Two similar cars followed them with one consisting of the medical team the Director had brought with him and another full of a security detail.

Pepper could see a similar convoy already parked on the tarmac as Nick took the final turn onto the runway. Behind the parked cars was a plane that was large enough to be a commercial aircraft, which was great given the amount of people who needed to board it. The plane was matte black with the logo of S.H.I.E.L.D. displayed proudly in silver towards the tail. The waiting party, seeing their arrival got out to meet them. Pepper could see Clint standing by Maria Hill, the anxiety clear on his face.

Lila was the first one to see Clint due to her position behind Nick in the car. Cooper having the longer legs sat behind Pepper while she moved the seat up as far as it would go to accommodate him, even if it meant crushing her knees in the process. Nate was one row back strapped into a car seat, blissfully oblivious to the events occurring around him.

“It’s dad!” She yelled and waved at the window, unknowing that the windows were deeply tinted and there was no way that she could be seen from outside.

Pepper twisted in her seat to face the back and saw that Lila was taking off her seat belt. “Just hold on until Director Fury tells you that it’s alright to get out, okay?” The girl paused in mid-motion deciding that it was not the best time to test the newly acquainted Ms. Potts’s limit and ceased. Finding Nick Fury watching her in the rearview mirror she decided on a different path.

“But Uncle Nick… “

Speaking as a person who had been in this exact situation numerous times before, Nick Fury didn’t delay. “You heard Miss. Potts, don’t you start Lila Evelyn Barton. It’s been a long day, night and day again, just don’t start. You stay until I tell you to move.” Pepper had to turn back around to look away and bite the inside of her cheek to not laugh. Tony would be so upset that she didn’t record the famous Director Fury disciplining a ten-year-old girl. Lila crossed her arms with a huff and forced herself further back into the seat.

Putting the car in to park and sending one last warning glance to Miss. Barton, Nick and Pepper opened their doors and met the assembled group. Maria had worked for both Stark Industries and the Avengers during the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., so she and Pepper were familiar with each other and exchange smiles. Clint shook Nick’s hand and looked to Pepper and greeted her, “Pepper.” The greeting was short, probably since a ‘good to see you again’ or anything resembling the sentiment was not fitting for this scenario, and he had nothing else to offer. “Where are the kids?”

Tilting his head in a small movement towards the car Nick replied, “In the car of course, couldn’t leave them on the side of the road to sell oranges with HYDRA and Ross watching us, now could I? Lila is lucky however I didn’t throw her out on that last turn. That girl is trouble, just wait another few years and you’ll be gray.”

Clint rolled his eyes, which Pepper interpreted to mean that he knew exactly the behavior that Nick was speaking about and deserted the group to unload his offspring. The door closest was the side Lila was on. The child sprung forward at her father like a tiger being release from a cage. Lila held onto Clint as if her life depended on it and he returned the gesture in the same intensity. It was then that Pepper saw that Lila was crying. The poor girl must have been scared to death, come to think of it Pepper thought, Clint must have been experiencing the same emotion. Clint didn’t have the luxury to give attitude, or cry, as was apparently Lila’s way of emoting, because he had to be ‘dad’ right now. She could hear Clint’s voice quietly speaking to Lila in a comforting manner. Whatever he said must have worked because Lila let go of the hug and nodded her head. Clint then told Cooper to come on out and watch his sister while he released Nate from the car seat. With so many people around willing to help it really wasn’t needed for Cooper to watch his younger sister, but Pepper figured it was Clint’s way of giving the boy something to do and to be responsible for.

As soon as Clint ducked his head into the car Nate started to bounce in his seat. Showing his years of experience, Clint made quick work of the belts and snaps to liberate his youngest. After a quick cuddle, the father put the child on the paved ground to walk after being in the hospital and car for so long, knowing that with as many strange faces as there were in the crowd, Nate wouldn’t wander off far. By this time the rest of the cars’ inhabitants had started to board the plane. This confirmed Clint’s feeling because Nate stayed close but was captivated by the lengthy line of people passing him, but never requested to be picked up. 

Director Fury spotted one man making his way to the plane and called him over. “Clint, this is Doctor Martin Simmons. He was the leader of the medical team I assigned to monitor the children while they were in the hospital.” Clint and the Doctor shook hands and Clint expressed his gratitude for the man’s service. “I have asked Doctor Simmons to stay until we get everyone settled.” The fright was apparent in Clint’s eyes of his children continuing to need medical assistance. Nick was quick to calm him down, “just as a precaution. They are fine, I only want to ensure they stay that way.” Clint understood and appreciated the concern. The S.H.I.E.L.D. base was immense, with an entire wing devoted to medical. Personally, he hated every inch of the wing but knew Cooper would be thrilled to see the technology used there.

As every parent is trained to do, Clint took a moment from the conversation to do a head count. Lila and Nate were still within arm’s reach. Searching the area, he saw Cooper looking around, “Where’s mom?” Clint felt his stomach drop at the teenager’s question that he knew would eventually be asked.

Refusing to make eye contact with any of the adults that he knew were looking at him and waiting for Clint’s answer. Knowing that the lack of a prompt response to his son’s question was speaking louder than any words he could form. Clint had had some time to process what had happened last night at the farm. While none of it made any sense to him, Maria Hill told him on the drive over that the evidence fit with Laura taking out the guards and driving away. There hadn’t been any sighting of the car, and it was doubtful that there was a body to be found. There weren’t even any demands made. Everything lined up perfectly with Laura being HYDRA, at least that is what Maria had informed him. Exhausted from both the physical and emotional aspects of the last few hours, Clint had nothing in him to fight Maria’s story. His head and heart had declared war on each other, and he wasn’t sure who was currently winning. Clearing his head, Clint decided that he could not afford to think about that right now, he had responsibilities, one of those responsibilities was watching him with big bright blue eyes waiting for a response. Finally deciding to speak plainly, he truthfully said, “Mom won’t be making this trip with us Coop.” The blank expression on Cooper’s face told Clint that his son understood a lot more then he should, something bad had happened and his mother wasn’t coming back.

Lila was the next to twist the knife deeper into her father’s chest, “We can’t go to New York without mom, dad, where is she?”

“This is a daddy trip. Just you, your brothers, and me. We are going to see where dad and Uncle Nick work.” Clint explained hoping that his daughter wouldn’t bring up the fact that Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Pepper Potts, a medical team, and a very large security detail of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were also accompanying them on this ‘daddy trip.

Clearing his throat to get Clint’s attention, Nick Fury updated him, “We were thinking a place a bit more secluded and comfortable for the kids while we sort out our next step.”

“We’re going to the Avengers’ compound!” Cooper announced excitedly. Clint was taken aback by his son’s excitement considering the conversation they just had three seconds ago.

With a sideways glance at the boy for just blabbing out the plan like that, Nick rephrased, “I know things are tense with Stark and you now, but I have asked Tony if he could accommodate the large group.” Clint recognized what was going on immediately. Nick was trying his best to shield the children from the recent events, and by saying it was a trip to the compound sounded a hell of a lot better than ‘I can’t guarantee your family’s safety at headquarters because your wife went batshit crazy and we don’t know who to trust anymore’. “I was just trying to find the best way to ask if that was alright with you.”

Indifferent to the whole conversation, Cooper, since he was finally going to get to see the compound, came back with, “Well, Dad always says ‘shit or get off the pot.”

All the adults in the group looked at Clint disapprovingly. “In my defense, I am usually referring to the toilet.” The looks didn’t stop. “Hey! I currently have one working bathroom and five people needing it, one who is toilet training, they’re lucky I didn’t install a timer.”

There was laughter from the small group, but it wasn’t real. No one felt it was a suitable thing to do right now, not in front of Clint and not in the presence of his children. Their lives had been forever changed, it wasn’t the time to laugh. The pilot of the plane stood at the loading door and signal to them it was time to board and take off. Ushering his children up the steps and onto the plane he wasn’t surprised at all to see that Nick had thought of everything. The plane had numerous rows of seats, in groups of two. Towards the back, one row had been turned to another with one seat having a child’s seat installed onto it. Pepper helped to get Lila buckled in while Clint handled Nathaniel.

The entire seating and take off took less than ten minutes. Clint felt something in his chest as he watched the landscape of Iowa become further and further away. He asked to himself if they would ever return as he pressed his head to the window seeing clouds start to obstruct his view. The kids were safe, that was what was important right now, no, that was the only thing that was important. That was the last thought Clint had before the need for sleep consumed him.

_Clint was hitting the cold steel door with his left hand formed into a fist, but it wasn’t cold, it was burning hot. That doesn’t make sense, his brain attempted to rationalize with his unconscious. He was screaming at something, no for someone. Bracing his right shoulder, he charged into the door, multiple times all the while, still screaming. Someone had a hold of his other arm, pulling him away. He looked at the person but could only see a dark shadow void of any shape or identifying physical trait._

_The person was saying something, but he couldn’t make out any of the words in his dream. His swung his hand around and made contact with the puller’s head. Clint didn’t know why, but he felt instant regret at his action. Ignoring the emotion, he swiftly went back to the task of trying to get through the door. His shoulder hurt like hell, but he continued, again and again. The force was back trying to move him away, only there were two now. Words were being exchanged, he could not comprehend anything but the tone. Whatever was being said was being done so with urgency and emotion._

_Summoning up all the strength he had, Clint was able to push both people away from him. He rammed his shoulder into the door again and screamed. He screamed out like a wounded animal, but it wasn’t because of the physical pain, it was because of whoever he was separated from. Hands grabbed his face and forced him to look at them. Again, it was the shadow, still unknown but strangely familiar. Hushed tones were being spoken to him. He felt his eyes sting with tears, heat, and soot. Where was the soot coming from? Looking around he was surrounded by the ruins of a building with debris still falling. The hands pulled him back to concentrate on the shadow and the words being said. Clint was unable to do either. His heart raced, he needed to open that door. Breaking free from the hands holding him, he rushed towards the door once more, slamming his already damaged shoulder into the immovable object._

_He realized that he had never stopped screaming. His throat burned from the strain, but Clint didn’t know what words were coming out of his mouth, just that it needed to be said. Thankful that there were not any more attempted to remove him he retuned to his attack on the door. He was just setting himself up to strike the entry again when he felt a burning pain course through his body. There was only darkness afterwards._

Clint awoke with a start. Taking in his surrounding he saw he was still on the plane. Willing the vision from his sleep away he found that he could not. The dream, no nightmare was so vivid. He swore that he could still smell the burning in the air. Wiping his eyes, Clint discovered that there was moisture on his hand. Had he been crying in his sleep? He had experience with this type of thing. After Loki, Clint couldn’t sleep for more than an hour at a time without waking up screaming from the dreams. It took a long time and a lot of work before he could achieve any amount of restful sleep. The trauma at the farm must have brought it all back.

 The feeling was the same, but at the same time, different. He couldn’t place any part of the dream. Usually when this happened, it was a flash back to something he had done while under Loki’s control. The most frequent dream had been him remembering his fight with Natasha on the hellicarrier. The dream tended to end once Natasha threw his head into the hand railing.  It was a while before he could break the habit of waking up and immediately calling Nat to reassure himself that he did not fulfill Loki’s promise of him killing her.

His heart was still pounding against his chest from the adrenaline his dream form had mustered. Getting himself under control, Clint search the immediate area. He was briefly concerned when the only child who was near him was Cooper. Nick had filled Clint in a bit about Cooper’s role in watching over his siblings in the hospital, forfeiting any rest himself to ensure theirs. The child must have taken the cue from his father that it was safe to get some sleep since Cooper’s head was resting on Clint’s shoulder in a deep slumber. Counting one child safe, he looked around for the other two. He didn’t need to search long or far. Nate was sitting in Pepper’s lap diagonal from Clint and Cooper, smacking the tablet she held with both of his palms. Lila was a few rows further up sitting on the floor in front of Maria. She was sitting quietly as the Assistant Director to S.H.I.E.L.D. braiding her hair while reviewing mission profiles with another agent.

Feeling Cooper stirring, Clint looked back out the window. Slowly coming into view as the clouds became thinner was the property that housed the Avengers’ compound. Moving his right shoulder that his child rested on, Clint had to pause because something in his shoulder ached. He quickly shook it off, telling himself that is was only numb from Cooper’s heavy head and not a phantom pain from his dream. Moving his shoulder slightly to wake his eldest up he prompted, “Hey Coop, wake up. Have a look, it’s the compound. Here, switch seats with me so you can have a good look.”

Cooper was fast to take Clint up on his offer. Standing up to vacate his seat, Clint took his time walking up the aisle to where his daughter was. He needed to stretch his legs anyways. Coming up from behind the child he noticed she jolted a bit when he started his comment. “Lila, I need you to go back to your seat now honey. We are about to land.” Without any protest, she got up and returned to her seat across from her brother and joined in staring out the windows.

“Two down, one to go.” Clint announced approaching Pepper and Nate. He was greeted with the familiar sight of Nate’s smile that appeared whenever Clint showed up. “Think you have a new friend.” He said addressing Pepper.

Handing the boy to Clint, she held onto the toddler’s foot playfully. “He is a wonderful child Clint. I think we became fast friends in the hospital.”

“Yeah, about that. Thank you for what you and Tony did back there. I don’t know half the story yet, not by a long shot.” Pepper had to suppress the need to tell him that he didn’t even have a quarter of the entire story yet. “But I do know you and Tony stepped up and helped. You didn’t have to do that, and I don’t know why you did, but I am grateful.”

Pepper let go of Nate’s foot and placed her hand on Clint’s forearm. “Tony told me what you two talked about yesterday. You know why he did it, and even if that wasn’t the case, we would have been there anyway because we are friends.” A response wasn’t needed from Clint. It wasn’t the time or the place. Besides, Clint needed to make sure everyone was buckled in before landing.

It was twelve-thirty by the time everyone had exited the plane and entered the compound. Vision and Colonel James Rhodes greeted everyone in the foyer of the building. It had been awhile since either of them had seen Clint, and the last time wasn’t a party. Tony had updated Rhodes on the events, who in turn, told Vision. Tony hadn’t told them everything, feeling it was cruel for everyone but Clint to know about his own life.  Rhodes instantly upon hearing the tragedy that have befallen his friend and his family decided to forgive and forget all of it. If there was any doubt in Clint’s mind that it wouldn’t be awkward back at the compound, it was forgotten when Rhodes pulled him into a hug. If any part of the embrace was surprising to anyone who witness the act, it was that Clint hugged back.

“This sucks man, I’m sorry.” Rhodes said in a low voice, so the children wouldn’t hear, unknowing to him that they had heard worst, and recently.

Releasing Rhodes, Clint nodded, “It definitely does, thanks.”

Vision took advantage of the pause in conversation to inform the party, “I have prepared lunch in the dining room. I didn’t know if your flight provided you with a meal, so I took it upon myself to set something up.”

“You’re the Vision.” Cooper said with awe.

“I am sir, and you must be Cooper Francis Barton, Clint’s eldest son.” The android responded very formally.

“Yeah, sorry, so introductions, this is Cooper as we just established.” Clint said as he pointed to the teenager, “this is Lila,” gesturing towards the girl next to Nick Fury, “and the tiny person with Pepper is Nathaniel, Nate. Kids, this is Colonel Rhodes and Vision.”

Rhodes walked over to greet Pepper, Fury and Hill. Then he leaned forward toward Pepper to look at Nate. “Wow Clint, Tony told me you had kids, but seeing is believing. How did you find the time?”

“The reproductive act can be accomplished at a minimum average of thirty seconds.” Vision informed Rhodes.

The room became very quiet after the impromptu trivia session, mostly since none of the adults wanted to laugh at such a statement with children around. It was Clint who took the responsibility to break the silence, “Well, Vision, if I had any self-confidence left after the last two days, you took care of it. How about we get the kids fed in the kitchen while everyone else uses the dining room?”

Vision was happy to help, and grateful Clint was allowing him to. “Very good Clint. Also, your rooms have been prepared for the additional company. If you find yourself needing anything else, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I would like to assist you and your children.”

Approaching Vision, Clint put his hand on Vision’s shoulder, “Thank you. I mean it, I could not thank either of you enough.”

“We didn’t do it for the ‘thanks’, we did it for you.” Vision informed Clint. After that, nothing else was said. Everyone followed Rhodes up to the Avengers’ personal communal floor to eat.

~~~

It turned out that serving breakfast to an entire ward full of children with their parents takes a while to complete. It seemed that every patient wanted a picture with Ironman. The staff had predicted this and assigned someone to follow Tony with a camera. When Tony was finally done the hospital had a floor filled with happy and well-fed patients, and it was almost time to start the lunch service. Tony had always thought of himself as the “throw money at it” kind of charitable person, the physical acts were more his mother’s thing. As a child, Maria Stark would often drag Tony around with her to a variety of fundraising and charity events, and he hated every moment of it. Those days were now in sharp contrast to the helpful activity that he just participated in that morning. Perhaps he would ask the public relations department at Stark Industries to make a habit of this, every month visiting a different hospital around the country. The words his mother told him years ago had finally made sense to him, ‘it feels good to do good’.

As far as Tony knew, the flight back to New York had been uneventful. Mostly because he slept for the entire duration of the trip. It was only when the jet landed, he woke up and checked his phone. The notification screen that displayed when the phone was activated was a never-ending scroll of messages. Most of the messages were from Pepper, narrating her own flight and arrival back at the compound.

It was almost seven in the evening by the time Tony arrived back at the Avengers’ compound. He wasn’t only delayed because of the hospital, but he had made what became a long detour back to the farm. Tony had faith that Pepper, and the gang had supplied everything the Barton family could need and more. However, he had learned at the hospital today that children need certain things from home to make them feel safe. Tony had seen in the children’s hospital rooms various ‘home comforts’ that the patients cherished. For some it was as simple as a favorite stuff animal, others needed items like the blanket from their own bed to help them sleep.

Tony had searched the farm house from room to room for such objects. It was a challenge since he didn’t know the Bartons, and definitely didn’t know what would make the children feel safe. The one thing he did find was the puppy he had given the family the day before. The damn lucky thing was hiding under the bed in Lila’s room. The S.H.I.E.L.D. clean up team had done an excellent job cleaning the crime scene, excluding missing that there was a puppy in the house. Walking in, one would have been clueless that a mass murder had occurred there the day prior. Hours later, and a lot of snooping, four boxes were full. He had one additional box full of the dog’s items he found in the corner of the kitchen. Someone, in the limited time between Tony’s visit and the attack, had gone out and purchased supplies for the animal, but other than food, everything was still in the shopping bags. Tony also grabbed a few pictures that he found, avoiding any with Laura in them. It was doubtful that after everything that had happened that the family would come back here. Tony’s goal wasn’t to clean out the house, Clint would have to do that when he was ready. He would help Clint with any moving that would need to be done in the future, and by ‘help’, he meant he would hire the moving company.

Standing next to the jet, Tony watched as the puppy did his business on the tarmac. He was positive that the dog had gone on the flight as well, but a quick command to FRIDAY arranged that clean up. He then texted Pepper that he was there and would meet up with her after he saw to a few things. She quickly texted back that she, along with a large group were outside on the patio and it would be nice for him to stop by. Responding with a quick ‘ok’, he then contacted Vision to ask him to carry the boxes inside for Clint to sort through later.  Leaving the boxes for Vision to handle, Tony walked towards the patio carrying the puppy with him. By a ‘large group’ Pepper meant Nick Fury, Maria Hill, James Rhodes, and numerous agents. That didn’t even include the security guards that Nick had apparently stationed on every square foot of the property.

“Any updates?” Tony asked walking up towards the Director.

He caught the Director’s quick glance to Hill before he spoke, “A few, nothing urgent.”

Tony knew the Nick trusted Maria, Pepper and Rhodes, but he wasn’t so sure about the other agents. He kissed Pepper in greeting then spoke to Rhodes, “Hey Rhodey, do you mind bring this” holding the dog out, “up to the kids? I’m sure they are worried about him.” He handed the dog to Rhodes who turned and left to do as requested. Tony asked Nick, “Want to walk and fill me in?”

The Director stood as an answer to the question and followed Tony’s direction. Walking into the communal area of the compound, Tony was surprise to find it empty during this time of the day. Looking at the clock on the wall, he saw it was only eight-thirty. He assumed with all the drama and excitement over the arrivals, everyone went to bed early. Tony parted from Fury and walked over to the bar that took up the entire far wall. Picking up a bottle, he held it up to Nick and was returned with a nod of the head. Tony poured two glasses and rejoined Director Fury next to the window that overlooked the property. Each man took a sip and watched the scenery in quiet for a moment until Nick started, “I wanted to let you know that I have been in contact with Professor Charles Xavier.”

The name sounded familiar to Tony, but he couldn’t place it. “And who would that be?”

Neither man took their eyes away from the picturesque landscape that was laid out before them. “He is the leader of the X-Men and runs the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. I wanted to warn him about the potential threat to his staff member and student.”

Turing away from the window Tony observed, “Hey Fury, I know you use labels like staff member, student, child, and so on, to detach yourself from the situation.” Fury looked to Stark, it was an accurate note that didn’t need a comment from him, so Tony went on, “But I don’t work that way, I need names.”

“What name would you like me to use?” Nick questioned, unmindful to Stark’s endgame.

Rolling his eyes at how clueless the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. could be sometimes, Tony decided not to make too much of it. Nobody could be top for the spy game all the time. He answered the posed question mockingly, “I don’t know, did Kate ever get around to naming her daughter?”

The Director understood immediately and kicked himself for not mentioning it earlier. He used to be very skilled at shifting between speaking to agents and civilians. Agents, he didn’t have to tell anything to that he felt they didn’t need to know. Civilians needed the personal attachment, they needed the reasons. He responded with just one word, “Charlotte.”

Tony let that sink in. His granddaughter’s name was Charlotte. The whole thing was so foreign to him. “Charlotte, that’s pretty. Clint is going to be pissed that Kate didn’t follow his ‘L and E initial’ rule for a daughter, but I approve.”

Smiling over the brim of the glass Nick joked, “Kate will be over the moon to have it I’m sure. I don’t think she openly ignored Clint’s so-called rule.” He recalled after Lila’s birth, Clint explaining the significance behind the girl’s name. “Other than not remembering it was the father’s wish, I think Kate named her after Xavier, you know, for saving their lives. Oh, side note for the coming days, Charlotte prefers to be called Charlie.”

Holding up his glass Stark smiled, “Then to Charlie.” Nick matched the gesture and the two drained their glasses. There was something in Nick’s tone during his comment that gave Tony the impression that the Director’s information didn’t come from a phone call with the mutant leader. Tony assumed it was straight from the source. “So, I take it you have met them?”

“About a year ago.” Nick admitted setting his empty glass down on a nearby table. “Once the school knew I was safe. Kate remembered me from recruitment, so she vouched for me.”

“How was she?” When an innocent probing into S.H.I.E.L.D. files uncovered the wipe and connection to Kate days ago, Tony didn’t even allow himself to dream about anything even remotely resembling the conversation he was having now. Kate and Charlie were literally an hour’s drive from the compound. Tony hadn’t research the school or the X-Men yet, but anywhere ‘upstate’ from the Avengers compound was about an hour.

“Confused, with good reason” Nick added, and Tony had to agree. “She just always assumed that it was HYDRA that cause her memory loss. Apparently with the X-Men, government preformed memory loss isn’t a rare occurrence. They asked that I allow her to continue believing it.” It was apparent from the expression Fury made along with his intonation that he didn’t agree with the request.

“It’s not like you were lying to her” Tony defended. “HYDRA was the reason for the wipe, you are just omitting a few things. Did she ask any questions? I’m sure she had plenty.”

“She did. She inquired about her work at S.H.I.E.L.D. I told her what I could. Her doctor, Henry McCoy requested that I keep my explanation to a minimum so not to overwhelm her.”

“Because of the gamma poisoning?” Tony would have given everything he owned to have Bruce Banner here right now. Bruce would be able to examine Kate’s medical file and explain it all to Tony. Earlier Nick had said that things would be different if Bruce was around, that perhaps he could develop a cure. Tony wasn’t as optimistic about a cure since Bruce struggled with his own condition and remedy for it. At the very least maybe Bruce could consult on the case. Who knew, maybe whatever drug protocol they had Kate on could help Bruce as well.

“Yes, he didn’t know what the stress of the ‘enlightenment’ would do to her condition. I agreed once he told me that. We have all seen the effect of stress on a person living with gamma radiation exposure.”

“Did she ask about Clint, or about the father of her child?” Tony knew she wouldn’t remember Clint, it was a long shot, that he felt needed to be ask. He would think for the benefit of Charlie, Kate would think to inquire about the other fifty percent of her daughter’s makeup

“Put yourself in her place Stark, after the wipe Kate found herself in premature labor in a terrorist organization’s medical room without any memories of how she got there. She was separated from the child at birth and left to die from gamma radiation poisoning, alone, while HYDRA experimented on her newborn. By the time I met her, it had been nine years since the wipe, that’s a long time and no one had come looking for her. The reason for all of that cannot be good in any way. So, to answer your question, no, she didn’t ask. As far as she knows, there isn’t a Clint. I honestly don’t know if the lack of questions about Charlie’s paternity was because she assumed I didn’t know anything about that, or she was afraid of the answer.”

The gravity of Fury’s explanation of what Kate had gone through and his observations of her behavior hit Tony like a semi-truck. Leaning against the wall next to the window, Tony slightly bent his knees, willing himself not to collapse, at least not until he understood it all. Fury had been keeping things to himself, probably by justifying to himself that Tony didn’t need to know the worst of it. The torture Kate experience…and his mind wouldn’t allow him to think about Charlie’s treatment. “Kate’s baby was taken from her and she was left to die?”

Nick moved in front of Tony. Professor Xavier said that he will let Nick know if HYDRA made a move on Kate or Charlie. During the phone call, the Director informed Xavier that there had been some recent developments in the ‘situation’. Charles’ practical response was to arrange a meeting soon to discuss it. Nick wanted to be the one to tell Tony and Clint about what happened at the HYDRA base. Fury himself had a similar reaction as Tony did, shock. The only difference is that Nick waited until he was alone to express it. Tony needed all the information before the meeting in case the details came up in conversation. “Kate was never the prize, it was Charlotte, always Charlotte. HYDRA was handed the opportunity by S.H.I.E.L.D. to raise a mutant from birth, who could possibly be a match to anything S.H.I.E.L.D. could throw at them. That baby and her DNA are worth more than gold. Still today, HYDRA wouldn’t hesitate to grab Charlie and resume their experiments.”

With Nick’s last remark, everything suddenly made sense to Tony. A giant disco ball of comprehension illuminated within his mind.  “So that’s why the wipe was specifically a seven-year memory removal. They wanted everyone to forget that Kate ever existed within S.H.I.E.L.D. HYDRA probably had the same information I found. Kate wasn’t in contact with her Bishop family. No one outside the agency would be looking for her. Without the wipe, she is the wife of the future Director and mother to his children, one of which is also within HYDRA’s custody. Even if they assumed Kate died in the explosion, the Council would have still been exposed. Clint would lead countless S.H.I.E.L.D. missions himself to kill every Council member, and HYDRA goon, also to destroy every HYDRA base. Every agent in S.H.I.E.L.D. would have followed him into that fight because it was personal and hit the heart of the agency – the World Security Council.  HYDRA didn’t stand a chance. Eliminating Kate from the equation got HYDRA their test subject and protected the Council’s cover.”

“The flaw in that logic Stark is that Peggy and I knew about her.”

Tony needed to pace and talk this through. “Not a flaw Fury, an unknown factor. HYDRA was working with Derek Bishop being Kate’s father, not me. We don’t have anything to say that Kate knew any different. You and Peggy knew she existed, but did anyone look for her?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Nick replied, “Peggy did a few times, but to no avail.”

The pacing distance became shorter and faster, “Because she was in hiding with these ‘X-Men’. Kate was wiped also, lying in a HYDRA base dying. A few days later she and her daughter are saved. The X-Men tell her that she is sick, and her child is in danger. Of course, she goes with them, its basic survival. She knows her family is high profile. She can’t go home, her own name would bring too much attention outside the safe confines of the school, so she stays. Why didn’t you ever try to undo it?”

Director Fury was highly offended by the question, “That is just a dumb ass question Stark. Of course, I investigated it. I investigated the hell out of it for ten long years. Don’t you think that I wanted to bring them home? Tell Clint everything and reunite his family? Take Laura in for questioning and see who else is involved within the agency? “

Feeling the anger and frustration coming to a boil, Tony yelled, “You could have done all of that. You could have at any point pulled everyone in off their missions and precious covers and undo the wipe.”

Nick matched Tony’s volume, “Yes, I could have done that, if we have the ability, but at what price? How many missions would have been compromised in the meantime? How many innocent people would have been killed or worst while S.H.I.E.L.D. shut down to cater to our own needs? Who else in the agency is in a cover like Laura’s who would tell their bosses about our “lunch break” and take advantage of it? To undo a wipe this big it would have to be done quickly without anyone knowing so the agency’s weakness doesn’t have time to be discovered. Not to mention that there isn’t anyone who could coordinate all the pieces precisely to prevent massive loss of personnel, and the general population.”

It was that moment that Tony ran out of patience. “No because the person who had that capability forgot she does and is now teaching a math class right down the damn road! For God’s sakes Nick, my daughter, and Clint’s wife was right down the God damn road this whole time!” Tony stopped yelling. He didn’t want to be so loud, he wanted to be clear and concise so that the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. could fully comprehend what he was going to say next, “I’m done, actually, I am the opposite of done, I’m starting. I am going to reverse the wipe, so you better find a way to ensure everyone’s safety cause it’s happening.”

“Um, is this a private conversation or can anyone join?” A voice inquired from across the room. Both men located the source in the form of Natasha Romanoff. The Black Widow was standing in the middle of the room. She had somehow not only gained access to the compound without anyone being alerted, but damn far into the room without either man being aware of it.

Tony was fast to regroup, “Natasha, how long had you been there?”

Continuing her journey to where Nick and Tony were, she matter-of-factly stated, “Long enough to know you guys are playing a dangerous game. Aren’t the stakes high enough as it is? Now you are withholding critical information from the man who is in desperate need for any of this to make sense to him?”

There were certain things that one doesn’t mess around with regarding Natasha. One being her missions, two being her weapons, and three and probably the most important, Clint Barton. Both Stark and Fury knew this, so Nick proceeded with caution. “Natasha, I was wondering when you would find your way here. A bit longer than I thought.”

Natasha knew that Fury didn’t mean it as a criticism of her abilities, “It wasn’t easy.” She started, “Secretary Ross had the hospital and airfields closely monitored. He has people stationed around the compound as well. There are check points set up and down every road that leads here. Oh, and did I mention that there are pockets of HYDRA agents dispersed around a five-mile perimeter?”

“In my defense, I knew about the Secretary’s men.” Tony revealed to the spy.

Fury added, “And I knew HYDRA would be tracking us.”

Romanoff waved it off, “Don’t worry, Steve has been looking for a rematch with HYDRA ever since our last mission. The intel was bad, by the time we got there, it was cleared out. He and Sam are taking care of it.”

Great Cap and Sam were in the area, that wouldn’t cause too much attention to the compound Tony told himself. “Did you by chance mention to Clint that you were heading that way?” Many of Tony’s theories had turned out to be accurate, he wanted to see if this last one kept his record intact.

In a roundabout way to confirm Tony’s assumption she replied, “So, it’s true, about Laura?”

It saddened Tony to know that Clint had been used as an informant by his ‘wife’ for ten years which had resulted in the failure of some missions. “Seems like it.” Addressing Director Fury, “before we do anything else, we have to tell Clint everything.”

Natasha snapped, “No, you’re not telling him.”

That was not the way either Nick or Tony thought the conversation would go. Natasha found Tony’s bar and started to look for something. Finding the item that she desired, she grabbed three shot glasses with her left hand and motioned to the men to sit down on the couch. Joining them, she placed a bottle of Stoli Elit Himalayan Edition vodka down. Natasha reminisced to herself as she arranged the glasses on the table and pour a sizable serving into each. Even with everything that had gone down with the Avengers, Tony still made sure to always have good vodka on hand. He had given Natasha a bottle of the same stuff a few years ago and she loved it. For a limited-edition brand, there didn’t seem to be any end to Tony’s supply of the liquor. Sliding a glass to both Tony and Director Fury she sat down in the armchair that faced the couch. “You are not going to tell him anything, I will. So, settle in gentleman. You are going to tell me everything you know or think you know, and we will drink our way through it.”

 


	15. Chapter Fourteen ~ Enlighten Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry I haven't updated in a while. I was on vacation with the family, and there were numerous technology issues. Thank you everyone for your comments and continuing support. This is my first story, and I love the feedback and encouragement.

Chapter Fourteen                                                 

 

“Thought I would find you up here. Couldn’t sleep?” Natasha asked stepping through the access door onto the roof of the compound.

Clint turned briefly, he was sitting on the ledge with his legs draped over the side, he knew she was there and had been for a while. He had abandoned all hope of rest after the twentieth kick from a sleeping Nate into his stomach. Rest was what he wanted, he knew sleep wouldn’t come. Clint only wanted to lay there and listen to the deep breaths of his children, knowing they were safe. The thoughts that plagued his mind were another barrier from any hope of a reprieve from reality. High places always exuded a feeling of safety and peace for the man.  “Sleep isn’t my friend right now. I needed to think.”

“Well, you sure have a lot of that to do.” She stated as she sat next to him and swung her legs over the ledge to mirror his stance.

Clint dropped his head, “Yeah, I know.”

Natasha scooted closer to Clint, bumping her shoulder into his. “How are you doing? I know, stupid question, but are you hanging in there?”

Lifting his head to look out over the tree line, he was honest, “Barely, if it wasn’t for those kids down there, I don’t know what I would do.”

“I do,” she told him as she tilted her head a bit and offered a smile. “You would still make it, just not in the emotionally or physically healthiest way.”

Moving away, he gave himself room to pull back one leg on to the roof top, so he could straddle the ledge and look at her. “Why are you here? It’s too dangerous.”

Tracing the mortar line between the stones that made up the ledge she sincerely asked, “Where else would I be? Remember, I was on the phone with you. I heard your voice, I spoke to Cooper. I know what happened, this is where I need to be.”

Hearing Cooper’s name made Clint think about his kids, who were all tucked into the master bed, refusing to sleep anywhere that their father wasn’t. Even the teenage Cooper wasn’t shy about his need to sleep in dad’s bed. A king size bed wasn’t big enough for four people and a puppy, but they made it work. Clint assumed that he had a few more nights of this before they moved to the beds that Rhodes and Vision set up for the kids in another bedroom. The weight of the fallout was heavy on him. The children, his children, were afraid to sleep alone, were afraid that he would go away like mommy did. Why did this all happen? They were a happy family two days ago. Everything was good, they were good. Why did it change in a blink? Looking at Natasha, he felt the walls come down. “Damn it Nat, what the hell happened?”

“I’ve been talking to people about that.”

Clint knew what ‘people’ she was referring to, he had been using the same source for the past twenty-four hours. “I know what S.H.I.E.L.D. says happened. We both know how much the truth is worth to them, nothing if there isn’t an advantage. The problem I have been experiencing, among a lot of other things, is that I don’t see the advantage anywhere.”

Natasha understood, they were trained to look for the advantage, the gain in any mission as a motivation. Clint was handling it all by looking at it as a spy, not a husband and father. “Cause the only party that gained anything was HYDRA. Tony and Fury have an outline of what went down damn solid. Odd, since no one can remember any of it.  They have witnesses and proof, it’s the details that are missing.”

There was an ever so slight slur in Natasha’s words that only a person who had the privilege of drinking with her numerous times over the years would have been able to pick out. “You’ve been drinking?”

“What I discussed with Nick and Tony was heavy. I don’t have to tell you that this whole mess hurts. Alcohol helped dull it a bit”

Clint had thought about a similar coping technique to help numb the pain. It was harder to do with kids running around afraid to let you out of their sight. “No, you don’t, I know.”

She would be lying to herself if she said that she was fully capable of doing this sober. Nat wasn’t drunk by any means. That job was being fulfilled by Tony, who was currently passed out on the sofa in the communal area. Any other night, she would have just called that ‘Tony being Tony’, but not tonight. Not after hearing everything that Nick and Tony told her. After that she didn’t blame Tony one bit for his actions. “Unfortunately, Clint, it is going to hurt a lot more before you totally understand the full scope of what happened.”

“See, that is where I think you are wrong. I know what happened, I was there, and nothing could hurt me more than that. ‘Tasha, I am being told that my wife of thirteen years was a HYDRA agent who was feeding intel back to the organization the entire time. Intel, she was getting from us when we thought my home was a safe place to talk. My home! Stark shows up and starts talking about the wipe and missing agents, and Laura supposes that her cover is about to be blown, so she poisons her own children, my kids, and starts killing people to escape. She hurt her own children, so she could get out, she knew I wouldn’t follow her if the kids were endangered. So, tell me, do I fully understand the full scope of what happened?”

Natasha took a deep breath, “No Clint, you’re not even close.”

He demanded, “Enlighten me.” Clint was done with the games that he and his family were pawns in.

Taking in the surroundings, Nat requested, “Let’s get off the roof and go inside.”

Natasha started walking back to the access door and realized that Clint was not following her. Turning around to ask again, he stopped her with a plead. “’Tasha, I don’t want to go back inside. You are stalling and removing me from any potential danger because you are afraid of what I am going to do. I’ve known you long enough to know that I should be a little more than concerned if you are afraid.   So, away from everyone else, especially my kids, please just tell me.”

Natasha justified to herself, it was Clint’s life, he should be the one making the calls on this. “Ok, how do you want to do this?”

Understanding that she was giving him control about how the information would be given only heightened his concern of what he was about to be told. “Rip the band aide off. What about Laura?”

Nat braced herself as she broke her best friend’s heart, “HYDRA. Always has been. Our best intel suggests that they had been trying to get someone into the chain of command for a while. Fury saw potential in you, and had Coulson starting to train you to be able to one day be Director. Then, after S.H.I.E.L.D. conducted a mission in Africa in 2008, the World Security Council’s HYDRA connection was discovered. That was the reason for the wipe, it was to cover their own asses. The HYDRA people inside the Council gave the organization a twelve-hour window to set up their people inside S.H.I.E.L.D, and establish the cover for Laura, complete with family, at the farm. After that clock ran down, they wiped us. They knew that after a wipe no one would question your wife and children being anything other than what they said they were, and the Council would still be intact.”

“Set her up at the farm complete with family? No one would question my wife and children being anything but what they said they were. So, what were they?” Clint asked not completely sure he wanted the answer.

Natasha knew what was going on in his head, “Clint, Cooper is your son. I promise you that. S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark have the proof if you need to see it.” She knew that Clint wouldn’t, Cooper’s weren’t the results he would want to see. “But, Laura was not your wife, and never was.”

Thinking back to his conversation with Tony the day earlier, Clint reluctantly conceded to the theory that Stark danced around. “Katherine Bishop.”

The Black Widow was stuck on the way Clint had said the name. It was as if he was ‘trying it on’, seeing if he felt anything as his mouth formed the syllables of his real wife’s name.  Reaching into her back jeans pocket, she pulled out a picture that Tony had requested she show Clint. He told her before he passed out that he had more when Clint was ready. Tony even had shown her Kate’s engagement and wedding rings he had found at their apartment. “Here.” She said as she handed him the picture that featured Clint and Kate at the Pyramids. She noticed a small tremor in his hand as he reached for it.

“What’s this?” Clint asked as he pulled the picture towards him to view. All Nat did was raise her eyebrows and gesture for him to look. Looking at the picture he was speechless. Part of his head screamed that the photo had been altered, the other part knew that if Natasha was showing it to him, then it was real.  Finding his voice, “When was this taken?”

“My best guess would be sometime between 2001 and 2005. Kate was recruited around 2001 and it would have taken some time before she would have been ‘mission ready’, and Cooper was born in 2005. That ring she is wearing is your engagement ring to her.”

Holding the picture closer to inspect the ring, “How do you know that?”

“Tony and Pepper went to your old apartment.” Lifting her hand to block any interruption attempt. “Tony told you already about the building. After he left the farm, he went there. The room that he assumed was yours and Kate’s had the rings on the dresser.”

It was all surreal, he was looking at the face of a stranger in the picture. However, this woman wasn’t a stranger, it was his wife and the mother of his child, and he felt nothing. The man in the picture was young and happy, obviously in love with the woman he had his arms around, and still nothing. “So, Tony was correct, Cooper’s mother is, or was, Kate?” Knowing what Tony’s relationship with Kate could be, Clint would need more details later. Now he needed to ask the hardest question he would ever have to ask, or so he hoped, “and Lila?”

Natasha prepared herself mentally, ‘shit, here we go’. “Lila isn’t your daughter, at least not biologically. Director Fury believes that Laura was faking her pregnancy after the wipe. While we were away on that mission, HYDRA found a newborn and gave to her to pass off as yours. The whole ‘she was born early’ story was just a way for them to place the baby without anyone being suspicious.”

Lila was his child, blood or not. He knew that in his heart, but it didn’t cause the truth to hurt any less. There were some components surrounding Lila’s birth that still needed to be made clear, but it could wait. Cooper’s birth happened during the forgotten time of the wipe, so he could only assume he was there. He knew he was not present at Lila’s birth for numerous reasons, the biggest one being that Laura didn’t give birth. However, he was there every second, from water breaking to final push for his youngest’s arrival. “And Nate?”

Relieved to finally provide some good news, Natasha informed her best friend, “Yours, and Laura’s. He is the only child that you two biologically share.”

“Why?” For such a small word, it carried so much weight for Clint. He understood why Laura was placed. The question now was why the children had to be involved.

“The working theory is that they used Cooper to complete Laura’s cover. Cooper knew you, he was three. Him running up and calling you daddy with Laura waddling behind pregnant with baby number two, damn Clint, it was a good cover.” Natasha had to admit. “No one thought anything about it. We all lost our memories. Even if after the wipe you were doubtful of the story, a test would prove Cooper was your son. You really wouldn’t be able to believe Cooper without believing Laura. Laura was placed so as you rose in the ranks, she was privy to more classified information to feed HYDRA. A prime example is when Nick faked his death and hid out at your place. Laura told her people that he was still alive, and they jumped him outside of town. Of course, Fury survived, and the pieces started to fit about who was a mole. Laura had to create a blood cover to secure herself.”

Walking away from her, Clint went to the ledge once more. He stopped to place the picture of himself and Kate gently down on the ledge as if it was made of thin glass. He then paused for a moment. Natasha thought briefly that Clint just needed time to process the life altering information he had received. The thought was dashed when he started slamming his fists repeatedly into the ledge and let out a scream that crushed her heart.

Staying still in her place, she gave him the space and time he needed to vent his frustrations. Hoping that the people who were still up and walking around the compound would do the same. The last thing Clint needed was a bunch of concerned agents running up here and asking questions. Clint would need medical attention after he was done. He was hitting the stone ledge so hard that there was a sound created on impact. Knowing the Clint would refuse all medical assistance, Natasha put money on her ability to guilt him into it because of the children. Knowing that he would have to explain his injuries to the kids may be enough for him to cover the bruises and cuts up.

Regaining composure, Clint turned back to Natasha, “They grabbed a baby and called her mine, so a cover could be strengthened. That wasn’t good enough, so HYDRA told Laura to conceive her own child with me, because the cover was compromised. Nate’s entire existence is due to a mission’s objective and not a product of a loving marriage.” She knew he wasn’t saying it to her, he just needed to say it out loud to wrap his mind around it. “HYDRA put hands on my son Nat. They had to move him from where ever he was at the time to Iowa before they did the wipe.” Clint would kill any HYDRA agent he found from that day on, for that very reason.

“That part is still unclear. We don’t know where Cooper was before the phone call from Laura asking you to come home for the weekend.”

“Wasn’t he with Kate?” He didn’t know why he assumed that. Guess it just made more sense in his head that if HYDRA was going to do a ‘wife swap’, they would need Kate and Cooper.

“No, in fact that is the only hard proof we have. Kate was on a mission to the Sandbox, the HYDRA research base in Africa.  Director Fury has her electronic signature on an intel transfer from the lab to an anonymous database on that day. After the wipe you and I ‘came to’ in the hallway, remember?” Clint nodded, trying to sort the timeline out in his head, “We were injured, Fury thinks we were also on the mission, but came back to headquarters to regroup and go back out.”

That was a huge assumption on Director Fury’s part, Clint alleged, “There could be as many as ten active missions going on simultaneously at S.H.I.E.L.D. on any given day, what makes Fury think that we were all on the same mission?”

“It is highly doubtful to anyone that knows you, that Kate would have been on that particular mission or any mission really, without you as back up.”

“Why? You just told me that there was a twelve-hour window to do everything in.” Twelve hours to deconstruct his life and reassemble it in HYDRA’s vision. There were too many moving parts in this conspiracy, the mission they were on, moving Cooper and setting up the farmhouse, now precious time was taken in the time allowance for Clint and Natasha to get back to S.H.I.E.L.D. without Kate apparently.  Remembering back to that day, Clint was in a sling, so there is more time subtracted before the wipe because he must have seen a doctor. “How could that be, all of that in twelve-hours? Whoever was coordinating the events before the wipe must have been highly skilled to ensure that everything and everyone lined up perfectly. Because one wrong move by anyone in this, would have caused HYDRA to fail. There had to already be people from HYDRA inside S.H.I.E.L.D.

Natasha agreed. “Yes, it is the only way HYDRA would have had all the intel they did to line up the wipe.”

That comment was all Clint needed to get off his line of questioning. There were people in S.H.I.E.L.D. setting up everything for the Council to wipe them. “After the wipe, Laura called to ask about if we were still coming for the weekend. I had to lie my way through it because I didn’t want to come clean about what had happened.” He couldn’t help but laugh. He remembered being terrified to tell Laura that he had lost his memories, memories of her.  His consideration of his ‘wife’s’ feelings were laughable now, she was in on it from the beginning. If Clint could afford the time, he would really like to evaluate himself, it was slightly concerning to him how fast Laura went from his loving wife who could do no wrong in his eyes, to his worst enemy, literally overnight. Natasha nodded to communicate that she remembered the phone conversation, and the visit to the farm afterwards. “Do you remember when she called, I found what I believed was Lila’s sonogram? How does that work with the time constraints? Someone would have had to place that on me. Again, that is a lot of work to do in little time.”

She knew that this was going to suck big time. “Clint, Kate was pregnant when the wipe occurred.” The look on Clint’s face upon hearing that was sheer horror, but Nat pushed on. “That was the sonogram you had in your pocket, it was your child with Kate. It wasn’t planted by HYDRA. Since Kate was also an agent, it’s doubtful that you kept your marriage and children a secret like you did with Laura. It makes sense that HYDRA’s people reported back that Kate was expecting again. You had the sonogram and Cooper was old enough to know that another baby was on the way. Laura’s ‘pregnancy’ not only cemented her cover, but it avoided any questioning by Cooper about a ‘new baby’.” Natasha remembered going to the farm that weekend, her first time it appeared. Cooper only wanted Clint, guess that mystery was solved now as to why. Natasha recalled Cooper running through the house talking about the new baby that would be there soon.

Clint was thinking the same thing, “I remember Cooper talking about ‘Mommy’s new baby’.” Bringing his hand up, he rubbed his forehead. “God damnit Natasha, he was talking about Kate! Cooper was attached to me for weeks because the woman who said she was his mother wasn’t and the kid was confused. And this whole time I thought it was my fault because he was picking up on my emotions.” The pain was visible on Clint’s face when he lowered his hand as he fully realized the pure hell his three-year-old was put through, and Clint’s ignorance of it at the time. “Why was Kate on a mission if she was pregnant?” It wasn’t as if Kate would have been the first agent who became pregnant working at S.H.I.E.L.D., but there were policies to follow in those cases, or so Clint thought there were. The main one being that the agent was almost automatically placed on desk duty until after delivery. Why was it different for Kate?

Natasha moved towards him, getting closer, but still permitting him his space. “The Director believes that Kate was ‘necessary personnel’ on the mission, pregnant or not. He would have put you and me on the mission as well to cover her and ensure she got through it. Plus, and this is my own two cents, I don’t think you would have been able to just sit back and listen to the communications of the mission knowing she was there, you would have wanted to be the one to take point and make sure she was always covered.  And I would have gone to keep you in check.”

Natasha was damn right he would have been there. If asked, he didn’t even think he would have trusted Natasha enough to go in his place. Knowing himself, Kate’s safety would have trumped any mission objectives in his mind. So, what went wrong? Kate was gone, and so was the baby. The hits kept coming. “And we failed.”

“Didn’t fail the mission, and that was because of Kate. She did her job.” Natasha offered knowing it wouldn’t be of any comfort to him, not now, knowing what he had lost.

She was right, it didn’t help him at all knowing the mission was a success because he responded, “But, I didn’t do mine.”

“HYDRA tracked her to within the lab of the Sandbox base. The base’s communication lines were open and streaming live to the database to be stored, a database that only a few knew about. Fury has the entire recording when you want to hear it.” She would beg him not to but knew Clint would. “They knew where she was, and unfortunately, she was right next to a reactor that was storing the gamma radiation raw materials before it was added to the serum. They couldn’t get to her fast enough to stop what she was transferring, and she was transferring vital information. Information that would expose the Council, show the research and experimentation that HYDRA was doing on humans. The intel was imperative for the protection of not only S.H.I.E.L.D., but the world.” Natasha thought that knowing the stakes in the mission would help Clint compartmentalize the sacrifices that were made. “They weren’t able to get to her to stop what she was doing, but they could push a button and blow her and the file transfer up, along with their lab and all the progress they had made up to that point.” Taking a deep breath and looking up to the sky she excused their actions after the explosion more for herself than Clint, “Clint, we probably didn’t even know HYDRA was going to do it, we just found ourselves in the middle of an explosion. We weren’t killed or taken so it’s easy to assume that we were not in the room with Kate. Probably stationed somewhere close, but not with her. That big of a blast, S.H.I.E.L.D. must have put her as Killed in Action, and had us withdraw.”

The dream of him pounding on a door and screaming reappeared in the forefront of his mind. It wasn’t a dream, it was a flashback to right after the explosion, when Clint lost everything and everyone in one fiery moment. The scenes flashed before him again, this time he could make out that it was Kate’s name he was screaming. Why the hell was she on that mission, it didn’t matter to Clint if she was ‘necessary’ or not, she shouldn’t have been there. The baby shouldn’t have been there. The reality of what he had lost tightened in his chest making it difficult to breathe. It was not only the wife and child he had lost, but also any memory he had ever had of them. It was beyond cruel. He had to sit down before he passed out. Scanning around, he saw nothing nearby, and the ledge was not the best option right now. The roof was covered in rocks for rain collection, deciding it was better than nothing he sat down on the roof top leaning against the ledge as support. “I didn’t protect them.”

Natasha watched as Clint processed everything. The man had lost two wives in a matter of hours, and both to HYDRA. The unknown baby was just the cherry on the top of a disgusting sundae.  Kneeling in front of him, she took Clint’s face into her hands. “Clint, they are alive. Both, alive.  Nick has seen them himself.” The was a flicker of something in his eyes. He was a dead man coming back to life.

Not trusting his brain yet to complete full sentences, he put out the two words that stopped the world from spinning, “They’re alive?” Seeing her smile as an answer, she then released his face. His head was finally clear, “Damn it Nat, start with that information first!”

A quick reevaluation of their conversation caused Natasha to see his point, she did not do this in the best way. “You said ‘rip off the band aid.”

Clint leaned his head against the wall and let out a sigh, “Yeah, but most people don’t poke at it to make the wound reopen.” Thinking about what he was just told, he asked Nat, “If S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t know about the mission because it was before the wipe, and Kate was wiped from all records, who got to her?”

Deciding to take the pressure off her screaming knees from the kneeling, Natasha shifted back and sat down across from Clint, “There is a group, they are called the X-Men. They heard that HYDRA was experimenting with Banner’s serum on humans, trying to create mutants. That was what the mission in Africa was. It was a planned attack on The Sandbox to put an end to the experimentation.” She stopped her explanation, looking for some comprehension from Clint. His eyebrows rose as a cue for her to continue. “First, they just let S.H.I.E.L.D. handle it, and the explosion happened. We were probably getting ready to go back out to finish the job and to find out what happened to Kate when the wipe occurred. We were clueless the attack even happened, so we obviously wouldn’t know that there was still some clean up or even a rescue/recovery mission planned.” She was trying to give Clint all the information that would allow him to let himself off the hook for leaving her there, even though Natasha knew this was going to be a cross Clint would now carry the rest of his life. He left his wife and child behind. He would never forgive himself. “A week after S.H.I.E.L.D attacked and days after the wipe, the leader of the X-Men, a Charles Xavier saw that there was still a mutant there. He can see where any mutant is at any time by using a special machine. He sent his team to investigate and save anyone they could.”

Clint didn’t know anything about the X-Men, he had of course heard the team name from his time in S.H.I.E.L.D. but that was as far as his knowledge went. “They found Kate?”

Looking up from the tiny rock tower she was building on the roof, Natasha clarified, “They found Kate and the baby.”

Shocked at the inclusion of the baby in the rescue, Clint asked, “She had the baby in the lab?”

Dramatically knocking over the tower with the back of her hand Natasha decided to start with a disclaimer, “We are working with limited intel. Everything we know after the wipe is provided from Fury and Stark’s research and by the X-Men. The X-Men’s information is the combination of talking to Kate and interrogating HYDRA goons after the raid.  HYDRA possibly matched Laura’s ‘pregnancy’ up with Kate’s since you had the sonogram. That means Kate would have had to be in her third trimester at the time of the mission. The explosion caused injuries to Kate, and she went into labor. HYDRA delivered the baby in the Sandbox, the part they didn’t blow up.”

Clint didn’t see why HYDRA would take time after an attack to deliver a baby, their humanitarian effort was not what the terrorist organization was widely known for. “Why go through all the trouble of delivering the baby and keeping them alive?”

 “Kate was the golden goose that HYDRA didn’t even know about until they had her. It was the set up to a perfect storm. Kate was the only person who knew of HYDRA’s penetration into the Council and S.H.I.E.L.D., they didn’t know about the hidden database. HYDRA deleted all the agency’s databases going back seven years, all the ones they were able to access. That erased not only Kate but anything they assumed she transferred during the mission. HYDRA would still be in the clear by eliminating her. No one would be looking for her, because no one knew about her. She was your wife, and a valuable agent, the wipe gave them the opportunity to replace her with Laura. Her surviving the blast and gamma radiation, as well as her child is probably the only reason HYDRA didn’t take her out when they found her. Like I said, perfect storm.”

“That doesn’t add up to me Nat. If there were any mutants in the lab, they would have been terminated with the blast. That is unless they were like the Hulk, and in that case, they would have been pissed. We would have never made it back to HQ alive. And how the hell did Kate and the baby survive a detonation like that?”

“I didn’t say mutants Clint, I said Xavier saw that there was still a mutant there, singular. How Kate survived, I have no idea, but neither did HYDRA. Most of HYDRA’s experimentation of human subjects failed as soon as they were injected with Bruce’s serum. The ones that could have in any way been labeled a success were taken out in the explosion. The data Kate transferred prior to the blast suggests HYDRA was researching the X-gene but didn’t have any subjects with the chromosome mutation to confirm it was the key to successfully being able to administer the serum, so HYDRA was over joyed when tests confirmed the baby had it.”

None of what Natasha was saying was answering Clint’s questions, “A what gene?”

Natasha suppressed her laughter. She had said the exact same thing when Nick and Tony were explaining it to her. “An X-gene. It’s a mutation on the 23rd chromosome that causes a, well, a mutation or enhancement. It turned out to be a good thing the kid had it.  Fury was told that HYDRA was shocked that the infant was born alive after the explosion, even more so given the raw radiation exposure. Those two factors should not add up to either Kate or the child surviving. They worked quickly to do their tests to see if the X-gene was the child’s secret to being alive. HYDRA lost all their research, but it didn’t work anyway, so the kid’s DNA gave them a fresh start in the right direction to creating their own mutants. Due to their testing, the baby was ‘activated’.”

The terms ‘testing’ and ‘activation’ being spoken in the same sentence as ‘baby’ did not give Clint a good feeling. He was about to question what it meant when Natasha predicted his question and provided, “It was the only thing that saved the baby’s life. She was too premature and weak without it to have survived.”

“She?” Clint had stored and processed all the medical and science information for later follow up, the only thing he currently needed additional knowledge on was the child.

“Yeah, she. Her name is Charlotte.” Natasha provided.

 “And Fury has seen them, Kate and Charlotte? Where?”

Natasha worked fast to recall the details of the mutant school, “With the X-Men in Westchester County. They run a school up there for mutant children and serve as a haven for mutants. The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.”

“Westchester County, like in New York? That is maybe thirty minutes up the road.” Clint calculated as he stood up and extended his arms to assist Natasha up.

The irony of how close Kate was to the Avengers’ base did not go unnoticed by Natasha. “Yes, it is. HYDRA is still looking for them, so it was the safest place for them to be. Kate is apparently a teacher there and Charlotte is a student, so she can learn how to control her mutation.”

Upon hearing that his newly discovered family was in danger from the terrorist organization, Clint started planning, “HYDRA is still looking for them?”

Natasha clarified, “They are looking for Charlotte. They believe the secret to Bruce’s serum is in her blood. The interrogation ten years ago provided the intel that HYDRA was scanning for gamma signals, so they know where she is. It is the X-Men’s educated guess that as soon as Charlotte takes one step off campus, HYDRA will attempt to grab her. Fury thinks HYDRA has stepped up their game. Did you ask Laura about Kate?”

Clint nodded. That is what sparked this whole damn thing. The mention of Kate to Laura. Him telling Laura that Kate was Tony’s daughter and he was searching for her was the start to Laura’s cover being blown. She knew enough to understand that when Tony sunk his teeth into something, he didn’t let go. Add to the fact that Tony had brought Clint in to it, and the missing toothbrushes, it was just a matter of time before Laura was exposed. “Last night. It was after Tony questioned me about it. I thought that maybe you or I mentioned something at home about her that Laura may remember.”

“That would support Fury’s claim as of why HYDRA is stationed all over the outsides of the compound. They are waiting for you or Tony to bring Kate and Charlotte here.”

“HYDRA is outside the gates?” How did he not know about that? Clint really needed sleep, he was off his game, for several reasons.

Natasha added, “So are Secretary Ross’ men. They are hoping that your family drama will cause Steve and me to come out of hiding. It is very crowded out there. Steve and Sam are working on ‘crowd control’.”

“Ok, so, that is a hell of a lot of information. I do have a few follow up questions obviously. However, before I start that, is there anything else I should know?”

“Nothing that I can think of...” Then it hit Natasha, hard, there was one more critical piece of information that needed to be conveyed. “Yes, there is, while Charlotte was enhanced because of the gamma radiation exposure, Kate was…poisoned.”

“Come again?” How someone like Natasha could forget to provide that information was beyond him.

“Kate has gamma radiation poisoning from the explosion. That’s why HYDRA didn’t just kill her after she delivered. They wanted to see the effects of that much poison on the human body. The X-Men got to her and have been keeping her alive all this time with some type of medication.”

There was so much wrong with everything Natasha had just said, but Clint was able to pull out the life-threatening relevant intel, “But the medication is working?”

Being quick to reassure him, Natasha said, “Yes, but she has to stay close to the school because the dosage needs constant monitoring to be efficient.”

As far as bad news went, Kate needing to take a pill or two wasn’t a major issue. Clint could work with that, well he would have to. Moving on, he asked, “So, Charlotte, she like a mini Hulk? Is she green?”

Natasha was puzzled, “What?”

“You said it was the raw form of Bruce’s serum. That’s how the Hulk was created. She must go to a special school to learn how to control her mutation. What is her mutation?”

That was a good question she thought to herself, then admitted, “Shit, I never asked.” Clint moved quickly past her to the access door, “Wait where are you going?”

Answering over his shoulder, “Thirty minutes up the road, I’ll be back before the kids wake up. Do you mind watching them?” He stopped, remembering something, “and take the dog out please.”

Running after him, she reached the door before Clint did and placed herself between it and him. “You can’t just go up there in the middle of the night and demand a woman and her child who have no idea who you are. That shit is what makes up police dramas on television.” Pausing for a moment she added, “what dog?”

Conceding that Natasha may be right about what he was about to do, he stopped trying to get to the door. “So, what do I do? Just let it go, or wait for something to happen to them, again? Nat, you said it yourself, HYDRA is looking for them.”

Releasing the force she had on the door, Natasha caught her breath, “They aren’t looking for Charlotte, they have known where she and her mother have been for ten years. HYDRA doesn’t have the ability to go up against the X-Men. HYDRA is waiting around for you to do exactly what you were just about to do. Get emotional and attempt to take your wife and child off the school’s campus. Don’t do the bad guy’s work for them Clint, think smart. I’m not saying let it go, because there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of you doing that. Director Fury is arranging a meeting with Professor Xavier to discuss everything. Just wait until Fury provides us with additional information. He may even still be up, he was walking around the compound after our little ‘debriefing’.”

“Yeah, that debriefing I can smell from here.” Natasha moved her head back in offense, then put her hand up to exhale on it, smelling it, she knew Clint was right. Rolling his eyes at how easy it was to distract her, he pulled at another lose end, “How did Tony handle it?”

“Not well at all.” Nat informed.  “He wanted to do the same thing, march up to the school and demand to see Kate and Charlotte. Tony is even threatening to undo the wipe, screw the consequences.  The Director has talked him down and asked him to wait until the meeting. Fury is trying to get it set up for tomorrow, knowing that neither of you two are going to wait more than that. Tony didn’t like being told to wait, so he did what Tony tends to do, and as a result, he is passed out on the couch in the common area.”

Dropping his head, then lifting it, Clint asked, “It is true? Tony is Kate’s father.”

Tony spoke openly about it downstairs, and the way he was saying it gave her the impression that Clint was aware. “It is true.” Natasha confirmed, “Tony not only had Cooper’s DNA, why he had it I don’t know, but at your apartment he also found Kate’s hairbrush.”

Taking a few steps back, Clint laced his fingers together and place his hands on his head.  “So, this has unbelievably gotten even worse.”

Nat understood what he meant, Stark was a liability. “I know, Tony acts on emotions. Fury has him on a tight leash though. I need you to think logically. Be the Yen to Tony’s Yang.”

Looking at her, Clint stated with a blank expression on his face, “I really need you to rephrase that, but that is not what I meant.”

Natasha combed through everything that was developing and could not come up with the threat Clint was referring to. “Really, I can’t think of anything that could possibly be worst then what we are dealing with now.”

Dropping his hands to his sides, he walked back up to her, “I can, Tony Stark is my father-in-law.”

~~~

The communal area was dark with only accent lightening casting shadows across the room. The bit of light allowed Clint to make out the sleeping figure of Tony Stark. He was carrying a tray that contained everything Clint and Tony would need for their conversation. A fresh pot of coffee balanced on the tray along with everything anyone could want to go along with it. Alcohol was Natasha and Stark’s way to cope and deal with stress. Clint’s was more caffeinated. He was sure to include in the coffee accessories, Stark strength pain reliever for the monster hangover Tony was sure to have.

Quietly with the grace of the spy he was, Clint set down the tray and poured two cups. He had been sure to have four in case Natasha and Nick showed up. Placing everything within arm’s reach from the couch, he looked towards the window. Clint thought about Steve and Sam out there taken on the numerous enemies that surrounded them. He would have to go out in the morning and locate them. They were here and in danger from the Secretary because of him and his family.  Natasha had already come in, and he fathomed from the pass out form of Tony, the two had made up over the Accords issues. Next, he would have to talk to Tony about bringing Steve and Sam in. He had a few ideas of where Wanda was, and would reach out later. He knew that Vision would appreciate that.  HYDRA was a player in this, and Clint needed all his friends and allies on board with him before his next move. Throwing himself down on the end of the long couch with great dramatics, so that the impact would wake the man, Clint loudly informed, “Wake up Stark, we need to talk.”


	16. Chapter Fifteen ~ Everyone Needs a Hobby

 

Chapter Fifteen

Feeling himself being thrown up into the air, Tony was jostled awake, and quickly moved into a sitting position with his feet on the floor. Clint reached him before Stark could activate the Ironman suit. “Whoa, whoa, Tony is just me.”

“Barton? What the hell?” Tony looked around the room wondering why he was not in his bedroom with Pepper lying beside him, then he remembered – vodka. Returning to Clint he saw the man shake two pills out of a bottle into his hand and stretch it to Tony. Nodding his thanks, he took his medicine and was surprise to see that now Barton was offering a cup of coffee. This gesture could only mean one of two things, Natasha was behind him about to slit his throat and was using Clint as a distraction, or Natasha had done as she said she would, and had spoken to Clint. Betting on the latter, he asked, “Nat talk to you?”

Grabbing the second cup of poured coffee, Clint leaned into the corner of the couch between the back cushion and armrest, angling his body so he could see Tony, “Yeah, we spoke. Thanks for not calling Ross on her.”

Assessing the man before him, Tony thought Clint looked aright. He appeared tired, but that was going around. No one would have suspected that this man before him had just had his entire life transformed in the past hour. He discerned that Clint was just holding it together, putting on a front. It was the right call having Natasha tell him, she probably handled it better than Tony or Nick would have. The fact that Clint didn’t jump off the roof or do something to the compound was reason enough for Tony to keep Nat around in the coming days.  Somehow, she had managed what Tony thought was the impossible, but he wasn’t going to tell Barton that. “Who said I didn’t?”

Stating the obvious, Clint pointed out, “She’s still here, which means there isn’t a threat to her inside these walls. She also told me that Rogers and Wilson are out there beating back HYDRA.”

“Well, everyone needs a hobby.” The bitterness was unmistakable in Stark’s voice.

Clint ignored the tone, “Yeah, but people don’t come out of hiding for a hobby. They came out because I was in trouble. We could use some help in the coming days. There’s a fight coming Tony, I can feel the heat of it moving in.”

“You can feel the heat? Who says that?” However, Barton was correct, and Tony knew it. “Who do you suppose this fight is from? The X-Men, Secretary Ross, or HYDRA? Take your pick, there are all a potential fight waiting to happen.”

“I doubt the X-Men will do anything unless we provoke a fight with them.” Clint realized how close he had come to doing that very thing just minutes ago. Who knew how it would have ended if Clint had driven up there and demanded to see his newly discovered family.

Tony thought about the group, the X-Men had never contacted the Avengers. They had similar goals, but each stayed in their own corners and didn’t interfere with the other. “They could even be potential allies if we play this right. Like you said, we could use the help. People that protected Kate and her girl against HYDRA for ten years would probably be more than willing to join up, if only to protect the investment.”

“We could use any help we can get on this one. I don’t know if S.H.I.E.L.D. is a dependable resource to tap or not. Do you believe the data dump uncovered every HYDRA agent in S.H.I.E.L.D.?” Clint asked.

Shaking his head as he took another sip of coffee, Tony theorized, “No way in hell did it get rid of all of them. I don’t like kicking a man when he is down Clint, but Laura? And I think we are lying to ourselves if we truly believe that she was the only HYDRA informant looking to get access to Charlotte and Kate under the ruse of being a S.H.I.E.L.D. ally.”

“Good point.” Since the recent events, Clint had grown to suspect a few individuals from within the halls of S.H.I.E.L.D. In the little time between his discussion with Nat and coming down to speak with Tony, he had become wary of the entire organization. What would prevent S.H.I.E.L.D. from doing the same thing to Charlotte that HYDRA wanted to do? Of course, they would justify it to him as ‘research’ and ‘noninvasive’, things he had heard them lie about before. “You know, my first instinct after Nat told me was to drive up to Westchester and speak to Kate.”

Tony had wanted to do the same thing, but Fury requested for the X-Men to tell Kate. There was no way to predict what the news would do to her condition, and they were the best people to gauge her reaction and act accordingly. Tony wondered if Clint had taken that into consideration. He wasn’t judging the archer, just wanted to know his angle. “What changed your mind?”

“Natasha, she didn’t think it was an excellent idea to do late at night, or is it early in the morning? Damn, I need to sleep. I can feel that I’m off my game.” Refilling his coffee, Clint downed the freshly poured cup in one swig and filled it again. “Probably be smart to get some rest before the meeting, whenever that is going to happen.”

“Not trying to ‘one up’ you or anything, but I haven’t known the date since before I got to your farm that day.” What day, he had no clue. Clint was right, everything was running together, and they would be of no use to their cause if they couldn’t even track day and time.

A silence fell between the two men, it wasn’t awkward or comfortable, it was just silence. Both lost in their own thoughts, wishing different choices had been made years ago. Finally, Clint quietly said, “Tony, I’m sorry.”

While he always loved to hear someone apologize to him, Tony liked to know what it was for, “For what?”

Clint moved his head side to side, some audible ‘pops’ were heard, which caused Tony to cringe. “For not believing you when you told me.”

It wasn’t something Clint should feel the need to apologize for in Tony’s opinion. A crazy man showed up at his home and told him a story about some government conspiracies he thought up, and to top it off, stole his toothbrush. There wasn’t a sane person alive who would have believed it. “If it is any consolation, I wouldn’t have believed me either. And I’m sorry also.”:

Now it was Clint’s turn to be confused, “For what?”

“For being right.” This could be the most important conversation he had ever had. This would determine not only his and Clint’s relationship from here on out, but possibly the relationship he would have with Kate and Charlie. Every fiber of Tony’s body was telling him to take this seriously, it was not a joke, but then he ruined it, “And the vasectomy I am going to schedule you for once this is all done.”

Clint’s eyes widen at how quickly the conversation had changed from HYDRA to birth control. Drinking from his cup, he smiled at the joke, at least he hoped it was a joke. “That was low.”

Shrugging it off Tony confessed, “Yeah, well it was supposed to be. ‘Mister I have more kids than fingers’.”

Knitting his eyebrows together in puzzlement, Clint asked, “How many fingers do you have?”

Waving him off, Stark excused himself, “Lay off, I’m still drunk.” He resumed his position laying down on the couch with his hand covering his eyes, “What do you want?”

Taking another swallow of coffee, Clint coolly requested, “I need you to forgive Steve for the Bucky stuff and Accords mess. Bring him back into the fold.”

Pushing himself up with the support of his arms behind him, Tony kept his legs stretched out. He could not believe the words that just came out of Clint’s mouth, “Bucky stuff? Steve helped the man who killed my parents.”

Clint didn’t want to go through this all again, been there, done that, got arrested. “But he could help your daughter and granddaughter live.”

Shifting all his weight to his left arm, Tony used the right one to point at Clint. “Now, that was low.”

“Did it work?” Tony bobbed his head slightly as a ‘yes’.  Sitting completely up he ponder the need for another cup of coffee, having finished the first one. Clint was on his third cup and stated earlier that he hoped to get a few hours of sleep before the meeting. Tony wasn’t sure how that was going to work out but figured Clint had it covered. Deciding to forgo the coffee, he grabbed one of the water bottles that Clint had on the coffee tray, drinking half the bottle in one gulp he gave Clint his undivided attention, “Listen, I don’t know who to trust anymore. The one person I trusted with my life, my home, and my family turned out to be HYDRA. I know you are just as invested as I am in this, and Natasha will follow me to hell if I asked. But we are incredibly outnumbered here. We won’t know until we speak to these X-Men if they will help, but I know Steve would. No one knows HYDRA better then him. I would like to go out tomorrow and bring him and Sam in, but I won’t do anything that would upset you. This won’t work if you and I aren’t on the same page.”

Placing his right elbow on the armrest, Tony placed his forehead into his hand. He sat there filtering everything Clint had said. Running every possible scenario of how to do it without Cap didn’t get him close to the goals of the mission. “You’re right. I can’t believe I am saying this, but you are right, so go ahead, bring in the strays.” Throwing himself back into the couch, Tony covered his face with his hands and muffled, “You know, I hate HYDRA, like a lot.”

“Well, I think they are off the Barton Christmas card list.” Clint countered.

The actuality of Clint’s comment struck Tony as he uncovered his face, “I know you are making a joke, but the sad truth to that is they probably were on it.” Clint’s body stiffened, telling Tony that his comment was received in a way that was not intended. “So, I take it that we are not to the point yet where we can laugh about it.” He paused for a moment, then added, “Understood, I am sorry.”

Shaking it off, Clint replied, “No worries, you’re probably right anyways. The thing now is to protect Kate and the kids.”

“Well, they can’t get in here.” If there were any possibility of the security not holding up against HYDRA, Steve Rogers having a presence here would ensure failure of any attack attempt, Tony considered. “So that accounts for three of your progenies. We just have to find a way to get Kate and Charlie here.” Tony already had FRIDAY running schematics on improvements to the security system at the compound. He would need to find some time the next day to make each child a profile into the system, so FRIDAY would recognize them.

Clint was going to ask for access to the mainframe for reviewing FRIDAY’s security protocols, but the mention of the apparent nickname for his daughter caused him to lose his train of thought. “Charlie?”

Tony provided the explanation like the name was as natural to him as breathing, “Yeah, Fury told me Charlotte prefers to be called Charlie.”

“Huh,” Attempting to dislodge the lump in his throat, Clint brought his hand up to his mouth to cover a ‘cough’. “Nat didn’t mention that. Tony, what Nat did tell me about them, they can’t come here. Kate needs medicine and Charlotte, I mean, Charlie needs to go to school."

“The school is thirty minutes up the road. That is not a bad commute.” Tony was working under the assumption that everyone would stay and live at the compound like a big, happy, totally dysfunctional family. Tony wasn’t so far gone in his delusion to know that a discussion would have to happened between Clint and himself about relocation from Iowa. Kate would still be able to work, if she wanted to continue working, and Charlie could attend the mutant school, but Cooper and Lila would need to be placed in a school soon.

“No, it’s not.” Clint agreed, but supposed to himself, who said Kate would want to leave the school? They knew little to anything about Kate after the rescue, and here he was planning with Tony about her life without any input from her. What would their relationship take the form of once confronted again after years apart, would there even be a relationship?  Who was to say that either of them would want one. Without the memories, just because Kate and he were married long ago, didn’t necessarily mean they would want to stay that way. It was beyond strange for Clint to be referring to someone else as his wife. It had only been a day since the end of Laura and him. The end of his marriage to Laura, that was a concept Clint was still struggling to accept. Kate could have remarried and had more children like himself. What if she hadn’t?

That one ‘what if’ opened the flood gates and that became all Clint could think about. What if what Nat said was true, and Tony could undo the wipe, what if he couldn’t. What if he and Kate found that even without the memories, something was still there between them and they wanted to try to make a ‘go’ of it again? God, how was he going to handle the ‘two extra kids’ conversation? ‘ _Hey honey_ (did he call her honey?) _, sorry it took me so long to find you. Who are these kids? Well, interesting story there, this is my daughter, Lila, who was given to me by HYDRA to replace Charlotte, and this toddler who already hates you for not being his mother is Nathanial, my child with a HYDRA agent who usurped your place in the family for ten years without me questioning it at all.’_ What if, Kate couldn’t accept Laura’s children after everything that had happened?Using the little strength that he had left to control his voice, Clint summarized his internal monologue for Tony. “In the end it needs to be their choice. Right now, you and me, we are strangers to them. They have had ten years to build a new life, a safe one. After everything they have been through, I wouldn’t blame Kate for slamming the door in my face.”

From what Tony had learned about Kate, ‘being safe’ didn’t seem to be her priority. Without question, it was the priority regarding her daughter, but Kate appeared to be a fighter. “I thought I handled waking up in Afghanistan damn well, but I got nothing on giving birth in a HYDRA lab after being blown up. That Kate must be something special, to be able to survive all that.” Fury said that Tony should be proud of Kate. He had never met the woman, but she was already his greatest creation. Tony now understood the meaning behind the similar words his father recorded all those years ago for him, and with that, a part of him forgave Howard Stark.

He noticed that Clint’s face changed. Tony had seen the look before, many times, but it was usually staring back at him in the mirror, it was regret. “Torture aside, none of this is your fault.” Clint opened his mouth, but Tony wouldn’t let him speak, “No, really, none of this was your fault in any way. I didn’t know you back then, but I know you now Clint. I have been in battle with you, I have seen you with your kids, hell, I’ve even seen you with Laura. If you could have done anything on that mission to prevent what happened, you would have. You know that, so you got to let yourself off this one.”

“Easier said than done.” Tony had never heard Clint sound so defeated as he did saying those four words. Who wouldn’t sound like that after experiencing and learning everything the man had within a single day?

Tony decided to try the ‘tough love’ route, “Get it done then. This isn’t about you. You have three kids upstairs and one more down the road to protect. It’s not just Charlie you need to worry about. Do you really think Laura is not going to make a move for Nate? Who knows, maybe Lila also. HYDRA owes Laura for the job she did, and when she cashes in, we are in for a fight.  So, put down the cross Barton, we need the wood.”

Clint hadn’t considered Laura still being a player in the game, but Tony’s assessment of the threat was accurate. He had the responsibility to make sure his family was safe. “Maybe Kate won’t even want anything to do with me and the problem will solve itself. Everyone goes back to how they were, and I try to rebuild off the grid to protect the three I have. But shit, I have known about Charlotte for less than an hour, and I would swear upon anything you placed in front of me here and now that I would kill for her. I don’t think I could just walk away from her. No matter what my relationship is with Kate.”

“I get that.” Clint gave him a look that Tony could interpret immediately. “Before you start, yes. I have known about Kate for over thirty years and didn’t care or did a damn thing for her. However, this past week, learning everything about the wipe and the life she had. Finding out that she was a real person, with her own family. Not just an inconvenience of one of my many bad relationships.” Taking a deep breath Tony attempted to organize his thoughts, “It didn’t hit until I saw Cooper, I mean I really saw Cooper. The boy is my grandson, the child my child brought into the world.” Uncomfortable with how much he was sharing, Tony switched gears, “Don’t get me wrong Barton, I know you had a hand in that, and believe me when I say we are going to have a conversation about your intentions towards my daughter.”

“Tony, if the wipe never happened, Kate and I would have been married for over thirteen years, and we have had two children together. My intentions should be very clear.” Clint had no idea if that was true or not. He was going off Cooper’s age, but for all he knew, they could have gotten married before Cooper was born, shot gunned it, or years afterwards. All he could confirm was that a marriage took place at some point in time because Tony had the rings. On the plus side, Tony didn’t know the truth about when the marriage happened either. “I had a dream, at least I think it was a dream."

Interested by the random comment, Tony asked, “Yeah, what about?”

Clint thought it would show his trust in the Ironman, and if he was honest with himself, Clint wanted to talk to someone about the dream. Even before he found out everything with Kate, the dream had been in the forefront of his mind, “An explosion. I was separated from something that was really important to me, and I was banging on the door to get it to open. People were trying to get me to leave and I fought them off. I was screaming at this damn door while stuff was falling from the sky.” He broke off the recollection and looked to Tony, “I had it before Nat talked to me. After she told me about the Sandbox mission, I now think I was yelling for Kate in the dream. I felt scared. I’m never scared on a mission. Pissed, angry, paranoid, but never scared. Scared gets people killed. How is any of that possible if I was wiped?”

“Memories can be triggered. Regaining the full memory isn’t possible that I know of, but little bits here and there are.” Tony was fixated on Clint’s confession of being scared, only one possible scenario fit the dream, “You were probably recalling the Sandbox mission.”

“That’s what I thought as well. It fits I guess, watching my wife and child blow up in front of me.” Clint trailed off towards the end. Obviously, he was having trouble fully accepting the situation.

So, there they were. They had spoken about their hopes, regrets, and their fears about the situation their lives had brought them to. Clint was correct, they had the same goal, but that is where the similarities ended. Tony had always set out to design the world to his expectations and predicted the best results from his actions. In contrast, Clint took it as it came and prepared for the worst. A quick study of Barton’s life presented a good case for the fact that the man probably didn’t know how to hope. The one good thing that he could claim was his family, and that had been tainted. Clint wasn’t the ‘all eggs in one basket’ type like Tony, no, Clint was the ‘let me smash all my eggs and set the basket on fire before anyone else could’ type. Tony took it upon himself to put things into perspective for Barton. “Clint, I am promising you right now, and you have to believe me. Not only because I am your friend, but I am now your family. Like it or not, we are stuck together for life. I will find a way to undo this. Maybe you and Kate find your way back together, pick up right were you guys left off ten years ago. A real fairy tale ending to this story. Perhaps you don’t, and you resume the lives you are living, as much as that would suck for you, given your current situation. That’s the gamble you have to take. However, there are children involved, and this is non-negotiable, Cooper and Charlie deserve to know their real mom and dad, and you and Kate deserve to know your children. If in the end, that is all that happens, you guys co-parent, then I would still say the good guys won. But you have to try.”

Clint froze as he managed what Tony had just said, then needed additional time to comprehend that it actually was Tony Stark who had said it. “Wow Tony, that was good. Like really good, and deep. Did you practice that speech?”

Feeling the tension in the room lift slightly, Tony admitted, “A little. Remember I have had more time to process this then you.”

“Dad?” Simultaneously, both Clint and Tony turned left to the speaker. Standing there with a distressing expression on his face, which was clearly the result of hearing part of their conversation, was Cooper.

“Cooper, what are you doing down here?” Checking his phone, Clint saw it was two thirty in the morning. It was way too late to even think about having this conversation.

Appearing to be afraid to enter the room, Cooper stood there unsure of his next move. Deciding if he was going to get in trouble for walking around the compound late at night and eavesdropping on adult conversations, he should just put everything out there. “I was looking for you. Are you guys talking about mom? Did she do something wrong? Is that why we are here and she’s not?”

A long time ago, Clint had made a promise to his children, he would never lie to them. The job that he did was dangerous, and there was always the possibility that he would not come home. The kids had no control in the situation, so Clint gave them some. They could ask him anything they wanted or needed to with the knowledge that their father would always answer and answer truthfully. If the answer was ‘I don’t know’, the kids could take comfort in the fact that it was the truth and he wasn’t trying to hide anything from them. That’s not to say that there hadn’t been the occasion that Clint had to stretch the definition of ‘truth’. Such was the occasion he found himself in now. “In a sense.”

“Clint, just tell him. He deserves to know.” Both heads now flew to the right to see that Nick Fury had joined them. Their necks were going to break if anymore unexpected company arrived.

“How do people keep getting into this room without me knowing it? Clint aren’t you supposed to be some sort of super spy, how are they getting the drop on you?”

Clint defended himself against the critique of his skills, “Nick is the one who oversaw my training, and I taught Cooper how to enter a room undetected. Besides, told you, off my game.” Clint slid over towards the middle of the couch, leaving the end open, “Come here Coop.” The boy did what was asked. Watching his son sit next to him, Clint put his arm around Cooper’s shoulders and pulled him closer. He wasn’t stupid, nor was his son. Clint knew this conversation was going to have to happen eventually, but he was hoping for a little more time.

Nick walked into the sitting area of the room, “FRIDAY, lights please.” The three men on the couch all winced and shielded their eyes at the sudden illumination of the room. Taking an evil satisfaction in it, Fury went on, “I spoke to Professor Xavier again, they will meet us here tomorrow at ten o’clock.”

Tony had expected that Professor Xavier would meet with them at the school. The leader had probably done his homework and didn’t want Clint or Tony on campus without speaking to them first to see where they stood, or what they were planning on doing. “Who is they?”

Taking the seat across from the couch, Fury revealed details from his phone conversation, “Professor Xavier and Doctor McCoy.” Nick then focused on Clint, “I strongly suggest you tell Cooper what is going on, not only do I feel he is old enough, but it affects him. Clint, the Professor has asked to see him.”

Clint was taken back by the Director’s ‘feelings’ of what he believed his son was old enough for. Nick had been a pillar in his children’s lives, but the final ruling of what Cooper was able to handle at his age should be Clint’s call. Defensively as a father, and not a spy, Clint retorted, “We can discuss it after the meeting, once I have more information to work with.”

“Again,” Nick said through clench teeth, trying to control his temper and to emphasize his point. There was a time not so long ago when Clint wouldn’t question him, just trusted Nick to do what was right. Those days were gone. “I would recommend telling him now, because for starters, he is awake and did hear some of your conversation with Stark.” Nick had watched the private session between the two men, knowing that it was vital that they spoke. Especially about Clint convincing Tony to bring Steve in. He was waiting for them to finish before joining with his information about the meeting when Cooper interrupted.  “Also, when Xavier and McCoy go back to the campus to speak with Kate they would like to be able to inform her about Cooper and yourself.  It would behoove them to be able to say that they had seen Cooper, and he is safe. As I said before, Dr. McCoy is concerned about how the revelations will affect her medically. Assuring her that you and Cooper are alright, may be the key to deescalating any reaction she has.”

Cooper was watching everyone speak and growing more confused and anxious by the moment. It only increased when Nick argued about him needing to be told something that seemed to be important, and his father disagreeing. He had no idea who these people where or why they were coming for a meeting and why they would want to see him. Cooper could only assume the worst. “Tell me what? About mom?”

Clint took a deep breath in, holding it for a while before letting it out. His eyes were down casted to the floor as he decided what to do. “Alright.”

The last thing Tony needed tonight was to witness the destruction of his grandson’s childhood. The kid didn’t need an audience when he was told that his life was a lie, and not only did Laura leave him, but his real mom had no idea he even existed. Also, he really should go to bed. “I’ll leave you guys to it, I’m going to sleep this off, so I can be cute and annoying at the meeting tomorrow.”

As Tony stood he heard a quiet voice call behind him. Turning he was surprised to find that the voice belonged to Clint, who had yet to look up from an apparently very interesting spot on the floor. “Tony, please stay.” Finally lifting his head to face the room, he spoke up and elaborated on his request, “This is about you as well. Cooper may have questions for you.” Facing the Director across from him, “You too Nick, I may not have all the facts straight.” The four men sat in the communal area as Clint explained to his son the events that led them to the Avengers compound that day, and for the foreseeable future. With the assistance of Tony and Nick, Cooper was informed of a life he had lived in the city with another mother. A life that he was robbed of at an early age, all for a small role in a HYDRA performance. A captivating tale about spies, lovers, and enemies.

 

 


	17. Chapter Sixteen ~ Gotta Pay to Play

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Chapter Sixteen

Pepper had purchased full wardrobes for the entire Barton Family. While Clint appreciated the gesture immensely, the clothes available in the high-end stores in New York City were not what the rural Iowan based family was accustomed to. Lila was on cloud nine and taking forever deciding on an outfit to wear for the day. Both she and Nate woke up around six this morning and decided that it was a fine time for their father to wake up at as well. It wasn’t the first time that Clint had been responsible for getting the kids up, dressed, and fed in the morning. However, this morning was taking forever to get everyone ready. When they arrived yesterday afternoon, everyone stayed downstairs, it wasn’t until the kids started to get sleepy that they came up to Clint’s rooms. When they got up to the apartment finally, everyone went straight to the bedroom. Now in the light of day, Nate and Lila had to investigate their temporary, and they were temporary Clint told himself, living quarters. At the Avengers tower, everyone had their own floor, here at the compound, apartments were provided. Each apartment had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen and living room. Rhoades and Vision had of course stocked the kitchen for them before they arrived, so Clint was able to make breakfast.

There was also a balcony overlooking the picture-perfect manicured landscape that the compound sat on. Someone had the foresight to put down grass patches and install a doggie door, for the dog to relieve himself. The access for the dog worried Clint, Nate was a curious child. Supervision was needed while the puppy was outside in case Nate decided to escape, and Clint couldn’t cook in the kitchen and watch Nate in the living room.  Picking up Nate and resting the child on his hip, he entered the bedroom, “Just pick something Lila. Everyone is hungry, and I need you to watch Nate while I cook.”

Lila’s head turned from the clothes laid out on the bed towards him in a motion that Clint could only compare to The Exorcist. “Fine”, she said in total annoyance at her father. She then grabbed some outfit off the bed and stormed the bathroom. Deciding that it was too early for her attitude, Clint walked away to check the second bedroom. Cracking the door just enough to peek in to see that Cooper was still asleep. Last night’s discussion was tough for everyone, but mostly for Cooper. Clint could honestly say that last night was the toughest night he had ever experienced. Cooper’s questions had ranged from simple ones about his family to more complex enquiries about gamma radiation. Clint, Tony and Nick had tried their best to answer every questioned posed by Cooper. In the end, he had agreed to participate in the meeting. Clint didn’t blame the boy at all when Cooper had requested to stay in the spare bedroom afterwards, saying that he wanted to be alone to think.  If either of the Barton men got any sleep, it was only for about two hours. Clint hated to wake the kid up, but they had a busy day ahead of them. Opening the door fully, Clint instructed, “Cooper start getting up. I’m making breakfast.”

Cooper stirred in his bed, “ok”.

Returning to the living room, Clint put Nate down and saw that the puppy had returned from outside. Relieved that he could lock the doggie door and allow Nate to wonder freely without fear of an accident, by either the dog or child. “Alright, I am now starting breakfast”, Clint announced to no one in particular.

He started to pull out some pans, thinking about making a simple meal of bacon and eggs for the family. “Dad, can you take a picture of my new outfit and text it to mom?” Lila asked from over the counter that separated the living room from the kitchen.

Clint deemed that the outfit she was wearing was actually very cute. She had picked out a pair of jeans that probably cost more than his first car, and a light blue peasant top that was decorated with beads along the collar.  The whole outfit was pulled together with a pair of tan moccasin style sandals. Lila looked to Clint for an answer to her request, while he was chanting repeatedly in his head, ‘Don’t lie to your kid’. There would have to be a conversation with Lila soon about what had happened. Just telling her the diluted truth that Laura wasn’t coming on this trip would only pass for so long. A talk needed to happen, but Clint couldn’t do it now. The notion that his schedule was too packed to be truthful to his daughter didn’t sit well either with him. He was torn and searching for a solution, it was Cooper that answered the question. “No, he can’t.”

Lila was just about to start up when Clint put a stop to the whole thing, “Lila, not now.” Again, he was stretching the truth. Where Lila would interpret the ‘not now’ to mean he would take and send the picture later, Clint meant it as in the conversation about her ‘birth’ and family was ‘not now’ happening. “Cooper be nice to your sister.” With that routinely uttered phrase, he felt somewhat better at the normalcy, and attempted to start cooking. Opening the refrigerator to get the eggs and other supplies that would be needed, Clint had to halt at his son’s rebuttal.

“She’s not my sister.”

The scene that played in Clint’s head was the red alarm going off in a submarine like in the movies, complete with the sound effect.  Shutting the door to the refrigerator emptyhanded, he growled in a low and dangerous voice towards Cooper, “Yes, she is.”

Cooper wasn’t going to give up, “Just like Laura was my mom?” Clint was worried about how quickly it went from ‘mom’ to ‘Laura’, but he was guilty of the same thing, swiftly going from ‘wife’ to ‘enemy’ in a matter of hours. There were a lot of emotions going on in the kid’s head, he would need to see someone about that, and soon. Clint checked himself for being a hypocrite about psychological services. However, this was a case of ‘do as I say and not as I do’.  

The confused look on Lila’s face brought him back to the present. Returning to Cooper he pointed towards the spare bedroom, “Room now!” Cooper didn’t need to be told twice, the kid turned heels and marched into the room with typical teenage grace, complete with a door slam.

“Daddy?” The ‘daddy’ versus the normal ‘dad’ killed Clint. Lila knew that something was going on. The vail was falling faster than he could keep up.

“Lila, would you please take Nate to the bathroom. Then pick out some clothes for him?” The distraction of clothes was all Lila needed to get off the track she was sniffing out. Clint paused to ponder if he was setting his daughter up to see clothes and shopping as a coping skill. Well, if one kid was going to be seeing a therapist, why not see if they had a multi-family member discount? Watching as Lila ushered Nate into the master bedroom, Clint turned and headed to the other room.

Reaching the door knob, Clint was thankful to find that it wasn’t locked. Opening the door, he saw Cooper lying in his bed staring up, looking like he was lost in thought. Clint sat down at the end of the bed and picked out a spot on the opposite wall to talk to.  “Coop, I know this is hard.”

Not taking his eyes off the ceiling Cooper replied, “You don’t.”

Clint could only put up with Cooper’s insolence for so long. “Excuse me? In case you didn’t notice, you are not the only one who had his life turned upside down. Yes, you have a lot to deal with right now, but buddy, so do I.” Exhaling loudly, feeling the pressure release from admitting that he was struggling also, Clint resumed, “What you just did out there, to Lila, was totally unacceptable. She didn’t do anything to you for you to treat her like that. You were told that Laura wasn’t your mom, but you now know that Kate is. You know where you fit, and where you came from.  Lila won’t have that, we don’t know where or who she came from. There is going to be a void for her that I don’t know can be filled.” Not receiving any feedback that his son was even listening to him Clint looked to him and asked, “Cooper? Say something.”

Cooper sat up in the bed and glared at his father, “Why didn’t you save her?”  Clint rapidly turned his head away as if the comment had physically hit him. Cooper’s question had been imprinted on Clint’s brain since he first heard about the failed mission. The mission was a success by S.H.I.E.L.D.’s standards but would always be a failure to Clint. Hearing his son ask him that was more then he could handle. It wasn’t bad enough that Clint would never forgive himself for not saving Kate and Charlie, but it appeared his son wouldn’t either, and he didn’t fault him for it. Summoning up all the courage he could to look at his son he saw tears streaming down the boy’s face.

That was it. Like Cooper, Clint had held back the tears. Hadn’t let one fall in this whole thing, telling himself to be strong. Cooper had done the same thing last night. There were plenty of times that Clint believed the boy would cry, but he held it together. The lump in his throat released and Clint let the tears fall. “I don’t know Cooper. I don’t know. I’m sorry, I am so sorry for this whole thing.” Cooper had never seen his father cry. The sight was scary, if his dad was acting this way, then they were in trouble. Wanting to do something, he moved to hug his dad. Clint grabbed the boy like his life depended on it. “I love you Coop, I failed you, I failed your sister, and I failed your mom.” All the walls came crashing down as the father and son held each other and cried.

“So, I am going to assume that things aren’t going well?” Both look to the door to see Tony standing there. He had a concern look on his face and a garment bag draped over his arm with a box under the other.

Releasing Cooper, Clint wiped his face with the back of his hand. “What gave you that impression?”

Tony lifted his arm that had the bag over it in front of him with the palm facing out, he moved the hand in a small circle towards the father and son, “this mess did.” He then turned to put the box down on the nearby dresser slowly, for the intended purpose of giving Clint and Cooper time to compose themselves. “I sent Lila and Nate downstairs with Pepper. Everyone is down there, so the kids will be supervised, well not everyone, Hill brought back a majority of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to headquarters this morning. Only a handful are still here, for protection Fury says. Vision made breakfast, and Lila said they hadn’t eaten yet and she was hungry.”

Lila complaining about not eating when she was a prime culprit in him not being able to cook made Clint smile a little, “Not by any lack of trying on my end. Every time I started, something happened.”

Still somewhat embarrassed by what he had witnessed between the father and son, Tony answered, “Yeah, I can see that. Hey, the guys and Pepper have volunteered to watch Lila and Nate while we are in our meeting.”

“Great, that solves that problem.” Clint didn’t want either of the two younger children there but didn’t want to explain to Lila why they couldn’t be at the meeting, but Cooper could. “I haven’t said anything to Lila yet, so I would prefer she not be within earshot of the meeting.”

Tony nodded in understanding of Clint’s dilemma, “Not a problem. We are going to hold it in my private office I keep here. Going for an intimate vibe with it, also sound canceling technology.”

“Sounds good. Thank you, Tony for everything.” Clint felt that he had been thanking people for the past two days. It was an unfamiliar position for him to be in, others stepping up and helping without being asked to. “I have a few things to do before the meeting, but I’ll be quick about it.”

“The prodigal son’s return?” Tony asked.

“Yes.” Clint responded, hoping that Tony wouldn’t recant on his earlier decision about Steve and Sam’s return.

Deciding that it was best to leave any ‘Captain’ talk for later, when Clint had returned with him. Tony addressed Cooper, “Cooper, Pepper made sure to get everyone clothes. Nothing formal, just everyday stuff. So, when Nick told me yesterday that he was going to get a meeting set up with the X-Men for today, I asked Pepper to order you and your dad a nice suit for it. I know your dad’s size from years of improving his uniform, but I had to guess on yours. I will get you a custom deal once things settle down. Shoes are in that box.” Tony pointed to the box he had just placed on the dresser and handed the garment bag to Cooper. “Clint, Pepper laid your gear out on the bed in your room.”

Cooper accepted the gift graciously, “Thank you, Mr.…Uncle…Tony…I’m confused, what do I call you now?” If anything that had transpired last night could be labeled ‘good’, it was Cooper’s acceptance of Tony being his grandfather.

Tony smiled, he was eager for this topic to come up by someone other than himself, “I was actually thinking about that when Lila called me Uncle Tony. Clint, we got to do something about who I am. I can’t have one of your kids calling me Uncle Tony and the other saying Grandpapa. That will get us a reality show of our own in five minutes.”

“Grandpapa?” Clint questioned with raised eyebrows and a grin on his face.

Tony returned the smile, “Like it? You have to say it with a European accent or it doesn’t work. I think the name screams class and dignity, don’t you agree?”

“Whatever, it is between you two, just keep it on the downlow until I speak to Lila please.” Clint said standing up and slapping his son on the back, “Come on, let’s get some food in you, and coffee in me. Once you have finished eating you can shower and dress for the meeting.”

~~~

Stepping off the elevator onto the communal floor of the compound, Tony, Clint and Cooper went straight to the kitchen.  Like Tony said, a lot of people had left. Only Natasha, Pepper, Rhodey, Vision, and Nick were there sitting at the table. Lila sat at the head of the table eating her breakfast, with Vision to her left, and Pepper beside him. Vision, from the looks of it was in deep discussion with both. Not being able to eat himself, he still liked making the meals and contributing to the conversation. Natasha was to the right of Lila with Nate in her lap feeding him. Clint noticed that the dog had made his way down and a water and food dish had been provided for its breakfast. A name for the animal really did need to be made a priority.

As Tony and Cooper made their way over to the food that was set up ‘buffet style’, Clint went right to the coffee skipping any actual food. As he was pouring the beverage he asked Cooper, “Hey, while I’m gone could you please talk to your siblings and name that dog?” Cooper smiled and nodded his head. “Nat, how do you feel about a walk in the woods. See what we can find, maybe something spangled?”

With a side glance to Tony, Natasha asked over Nate’s head, “You sure?”

“He’s sure, go with him to keep him out of trouble, would you?” Tony called over while making his own plate.

Pepper stood up to take Natasha’s seat next to Rhodey and to take over the feeding of the toddler. The eagerness of her actions made Tony suspect that Pepper had been waiting for an opportunity to hold Nathaniel again, but wanted to respect the Widow’s rare time with her namesake. Tony saw that the provided booster seat had been discarded onto the floor. It was highly doubtful that between Nat and Pepper that Nate would ever use it.

Natasha joined Clint as he drained his mug. Reaching into a container that was on the counter, she grabbed a handful of protein bars out and filled her pockets. Watching her, Clint placed the cup down, he started to search the cabinets for something. “What are you looking for?” Tony asked as he barely avoided a cabinet door to the face.

“Any thermoses?” Clint questioned, combing the area.

Vision got up, as he had said yesterday, he was enthusiastic to help.  He went to a specific cabinet and produced the desired item. “Clint, here you go.” Clint grabbed the thermos and thanked Vision.  Returning to his precious coffee maker, Clint started to fill the container up. He didn’t even notice that Vision had followed him to that area of the kitchen. In a low voice that it was unlikely that the others could hear, Vision queried, “Clint, if the true goal of your excursion is what I believe it to be, then would it be safe to assume that it is possible for Ms. Maximoff to be joining us as well?”

Twisting the top tightly on the thermos Clint responded, “That was a lot of words to ask if Wanda is coming back. But, yes, I am going to put Nat on it as soon as we get back.” Vision smiled and returned to his place at the table. Grabbing two more coffee mugs, Clint gestured to Natasha for them to leave.

“Those cups better come back Barton, they are part of a set.” Tony yelled as the two trained assassins left, and he sat down next to Rhodes. Cooper watched as he took Pepper’s earlier vacated seat.

Rhodes asked the room, “Are they doing what I think they are doing?”

Placing his napkin on his lap, Tony answered, “Yup.”

Rhodey continued, “But Ross and HYDRA?”

“Yup.” Tony repeated taking a bite of bacon.

“They didn’t take any weapons, just coffee.” He observed.

Swallowing a mouthful of orange juice, Stark confirmed, “Yup.”

Letting a deep breath out Rhodes concluded, “Ok, I just wanted to make sure I had a good grasp on the situation.”

“Yup”

~~~

It wasn’t that hard to locate Steve and Sam, just had to follow the ruins of HYDRA sites. They had left Secretary Ross’ people alone it seemed, knowing that any attack on them would send the Secretary to the compound’s door.  Finally, Natasha and Clint found an active one. Clint examined the site and determined where the most advantageous overlook would be, and voilà, there Rogers and Wilson were. Clint had them both jumping at least three feet in the air as he announced his and Nat’s arrival, “The people you run into while walking alone in the woods.”

Out of breath with the sudden shock, Steve smiled and extended his hand, “Clint.” He nodded to Natasha.

Shaking Steve’s hand then repeated the greeting with Sam, Clint asked, “Cap, Sam. How is the HYDRA hunt going?”

Sam placed both hands on his hips and reported on their activities as he looked over to the HYDRA cell below them, “Good, very good. We have taken out a few cells out here. But they are popping up faster than we can take them.”

Looking where Sam was, Clint commented, “Sounds like you need some help.”

Shaking his head, Steve rejected the offer, “You have enough going on with your family to be out here fighting.”

“You are out here fighting because of my family.” Clint countered as he produced the thermos of hot coffee. Nat was holding the two cups. “Steve, I’ve talked to Tony, he knows that you are a key player in this fight, and assistance is needed.” Natasha handed Steve and Sam each a cup. Clint poured the liquid gold into each and continued, “There are a lot of variables in this that you are not aware of. You can’t just fight this because it’s HYDRA, you have to know the mission.”

“Nat filled us in, we know Ross and his men are out here too. Real sorry about your, um, Laura.” Sam awkwardly offered as he savored the first sip of the warm drink.

Filling the top of the thermos up, Clint offered it to Nat to which she declined as she handed the protein bars she had gotten earlier out. Shrugging it off Clint took a gulp, this was taking too long. He didn’t have the time for a debate, so he just got to the point, “I need you to come in.”

“Come in where?” Steve asked skeptically.

 “Steve, Clint is right. There are too many players in this. The only way we can do this is together.” Stopping Steve before he could add anything Natasha continued, “Together, all of us. Tony is on board. There are innocent people in the way, Clint’s kids, and an entire school possibly if HYDRA dares.”

Clint could see that Natasha’s words got to Steve, but he was still on the fence. The look on Sam’s face told Clint that the threat against children was enough to get him back onto the team but would follow Steve’s decision. Clint decided to hurry this up by hitting below the belt. “Steve are you going to stand there and let Stark be the mature and reasonable one of the two of you? It’s not just my kids, if HYDRA gets desperate they will attack a school. And judging by the trail of HYDRA we followed to find you, they are going to get desperate soon. Any lost is acceptable to them if they achieve their goal. They don’t care if thousands of HYDRA agents, school staff, and students get taken out, as long as they get Charlotte.”

Steve looked up from the brim of his cup, “Who’s Charlotte.”

Clint knew that a long explanation would be necessary later but hoped they would just take what he offered now. “My daughter, she is a student at a school up the road. HYDRA wants her.”

Sam pointed out, “So, you have a missing daughter too? I thought that was Stark’s story.”

“If it helps with clarification at all, Stark’s missing daughter is Clint’s missing daughter’s mother.” Natasha offered as resolution, the amusement clear on her face.

Shaking his head with each syllable, Sam answered, “It…does…not.”

“HYDRA is active here because of a school?” Steve inquired in total disbelief. “Then why are they out here and not scouting out the school? What’s so special about Charlotte and this school that HYDRA is doing all of this?”

Clint put both hands up, “Gotta pay to play Rodgers, you in?”

Steve looked down at the HYDRA cell again. They weren’t doing anything, they must be the back up to the back up. Steve presented his conditions of joining up again to Clint, “This doesn’t mean I support the Sokovia Accords. I want that clear.”

“Crystal.” Clint agreed.

Sam and Steve exchange a knowing look, as if mentally between the two coming to a decision. Finally, Steve resolved, “Ok, we’re in.”

~~~

The walk back to the compound was considerably longer then it was to get to Sam and Steve. The reason was that with the action of the two, HYDRA had increased their presence closer to the base of the Avengers. There was of course also Secretary Ross to worry about. It was easier for Clint and Natasha to sneak around, that was their job as spies, but Steve and Sam didn’t have that type of training.      

There were only two people around when the four Avengers walked in, Cooper and Tony. The grandfather and grandson were absorbed into whatever was happening on a laptop that Cooper was holding in his lap and angling it towards Tony. They didn’t even notice the four people’s arrival.

“Hey Cooper, where is everyone?” Clint asked.

Both looked up at the greeting. Tony saw who walked in with Clint but decided for the moment to ignore it. “Hey Clint, the kids are outside with Pepper and Rhodey. They are trying to teach Lucky some tricks.”

Throwing himself down on the couch Clint questioned, “Lucky?”

Cooper’s face lit up in excitement, “Yeah, we did what you asked. We named the dog Lucky. Tony, I mean, grandpapa came up with it.”

Shutting the laptop and putting it to the side Tony affirmed, “Yeah, well anything that survived that shitshow that took place at your house should be called Lucky.” Clint threw a ‘what the hell? My kid is right here, watch your language’ look at Tony. “Please Clint, you’re his father and he was exposed to Natasha and Fury from a young age. I’m sure he has heard worse.” Tony looked at Sam, Natasha and Steve standing in front of him. God, the guys looked like hell.

“Tony.” Steve greeted in a monotone.

Tony returned in the same tone, “Steve.”

“I’m going to go shower and change.” Steve notified the group as he started to walk out of the room.

Tony just nodded at that, “Sure, everything is waiting for you in your rooms.”

Sam was stunned at the exchange, once Steve had left, he exclaimed, “That’s it. Two years of hiding out, and that’s it?”

“What were you expecting?” Natasha asked taking a seat next to Clint, leaving Sam as the last one standing.

“I don’t know, screaming, hugging, anything in between.” He replied in a voice that gave away just how exhausted he was from the fighting.

Clint smirked, “Don’t worry, it will happen.” Clint continued his explanation as if Tony wasn’t in the room listening, “They’re tired and both busy with their own agendas. They just don’t know that they have the same one. When the time comes, they will both suit up. Then, the ‘screaming, hugging, anything in between’ will happen.”

Tony felt the need to remind everyone that he was in the room, “Geez Clint, thank you so much for your vote of confidence in Steve and I.”

“Anytime grandpapa. Man, that’s just stupid, Grandpapa. Sorry Coop but accept it, it is.” All Cooper did was laugh at that. Clint was delighted to see his son laugh, it was a real laugh, even if it was only for a moment. If he and Cooper could laugh and forget about, as Tony so adequately phrased it, ‘shitshow’ for a moment, because of something as mundane as Stark’s title, then they could find their way to happy again. “Think Steve had the right idea. It’s getting close to ten. Cooper come on, let’s get ready.”

~~~

Tony, Nick Clint, and Cooper all sat in the living area of the communal floor dressed in their Sunday best. Everyone was quiet, they were all anticipating the possible implications of this oncoming meeting.  Tony’s system came online, startling everyone out of their contemplations, “Boss?”

Tony composed himself after the sudden alert, “Yes FRIDAY.”

The automatic voice informed, “Professor Charles Xavier and Doctor Henry McCoy are here for your ten o’clock meeting.”

Standing up and adjusting his tie, Tony announced, “Well Gentlemen, it’s show time.”


	18. Chapter Seventeen ~ A Fair Assessment of the Scenario

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank again to everyone leaving comments and kudos. This is my first attempt at fan fiction and the support I have received from you all is overwhelming!

 

Chapter Seventeen

Nick had volunteered to escort Professor Xavier and Dr. McCoy to the office. Tony sat behind his desk, while Cooper and Clint sat on the couch, leaving three chairs for the two X-Men and Fury. The tension in the room exuding off the three men was thick. There was no way to tell how this was going to go. Xavier and McCoy were the gate keepers to any of them having access to Kate or Charlie, they needed to make a good first impression.

Director Nick Fury had failed to mention a few things that most people would have thought to inform others prior to setting up a meeting. One specific thing would have been the physical appearance of the X-Men they were meeting with. Clint had been trained to maintain a blank expression in response to varies situations, and it seemed Cooper had been raised with impeccable manners. Tony didn’t have the benefit of either the training or the upbringing, by no fault of his mother, it just didn’t stick. So, when a bald man in a wheelchair and a big, furry, blue man walked in, Tony was unable to hide the surprise on his face. As soon as the men walked in with Fury trailing, Clint and Cooper stood up, seeing this, Tony quickly followed suit.

There was a look of hilarity on the older man’s face, apparently, he had anticipated Stark’s reaction. “Mr. Stark, I presume. Professor Charles Xavier, this is my colleague,” Xavier greeted with a posh British accent and gesturing towards the blue man next to him, “Doctor Henry McCoy.”

Tony extended his hand to welcome the professor. The doctor had set his eyes on Cooper as soon as they walked in, an action that didn’t go unnoticed by Clint or Nick, who was still standing behind the visitors. Dr. McCoy seemed to sense that his staring was making the men feel uncomfortable, “Which would have to make you Agent Barton and Mr. Barton?”

Clint offered his hand to both the Professor and the Doctor, then stepped back so Cooper could do the same. Tony was fascinated again by the manners the boy had, Clint had done something right. He was pulled out of his head when Clint spoke, “Yes, but please, call us Clint and Cooper. It’s a pleasure to meet you”

Smiling at the father and son in a way that conveyed to Clint that this doctor had a vested interest in this meeting. “Likewise,” he said, “my name is Hank.”

“What do you say we get down to it.” Tony proposed, thinking that the sooner they get this song and dance over with, the sooner the family could be reunited. He just had to tell them what they wanted to hear, so they would conclude that Clint and he weren’t a risk to the school and let them in.

_I do believe Mr. Stark it will take a lot more than a song and dance for me to permit you access to the school, and the people in it._

“What the hell, who said that?” There was a voice in his head that sounded just like the man staring in his direction. Clint and Nick looked at Tony confused at the remark. Cooper was suppressing a chuckle at his grandpapa’s comment.

_I did. I am among other things, a telepath. I felt in the need of full disclosure to let you know of my ability. I know you want to see them, lets work together to find the best solution for everyone. There is not a need to impress us, just be honest._

Not knowing how telepathy worked, Tony responded out loud, “Ok, we play it straight.” The looks around the room didn’t cease so Tony explained with a finger pointed at Xavier, “the guy can get into your head and talk to you.”

“Yeah, he’s a telepath.” Nick said as if it was common knowledge.

“Oh, is he now? It seems like you failed horribly in prepping us for this meeting Nick. Everyone, please take a seat.” As all the men and the room took their seats, Tony folded his hands and placed them on his desk and started the meeting, “So, where do we start?”

Dr. McCoy spoke up, “We would like to get a blood sample from Cooper if that is alright with his father.”

Clint answered to the request with a look to his son, “It’s his blood, ask him,” with a look back to the doctor he asked, “but what for?”

Xavier offered up the explanation, “DNA comparison to Katherine. We only need the confirmation, there isn’t any doubt in my mind, just looking at the young man its clear to me that he is hers. There are also some other things we would like to check for.”

“How so?” Clint asked, feeling uncomfortable with strangers seeing the resemblance between his son and his biological mother when he could not, for various reasons.

“He has her eyes,” Hank said warmly to the archer. He must have known that Clint was searching for answers to his hidden memories. “and some other physical traits.” Clint flashed back to the facial comparison that Tony had shown him between Kate and Cooper. Suddenly Clint wanted to know everything about her. 

Cooper had yet to say anything Tony noticed, just sitting there being all polite. How was this kid a Stark? Then Tony got his answer with Cooper’s remarks, “You want my blood to see if I’m a mutant like my sister. Let me save you the trouble, I’m not. And before you start with all the ways that a person can become one, I know them all. I’m thirteen, and I went through a hell of a traumatic experience this week, that I honestly don’t see ending anytime soon. All of that and I wasn’t triggered, so I would assume it is safe to say I’m not a mutant.”

Apparently, Cooper sitting quietly was the calm before the storm, because it was all coming out now, “I’m just a kid from Iowa who was originally from Brooklyn until HYDRA took me. Which even though I don’t remember, must have also been traumatic, and still no triggering.  Just because a girl they say” he pointed at his dad and Tony, “is my sister and a mutant doesn’t mean that I am too.” Clint didn’t do anything regarding his son’s outburst, Tony assumed he was allowing Cooper some slack.  

 “Well, if I felt there was any further need to confirm his maternity, that was it.” Charles said to Hank.

Laughing at his friend’s comment, Hank added, “Nature versus nurture I gather.”

Cooper was confused with the reaction to his burst, “What?”

Professor Xavier clarified, “Nature versus nurture. That means that you are your mother’s son despite not being raised by her. You share similar characteristics with her.” He went on seeing that the child needed additional information, “Katherine doesn’t believe what she can’t feel and touch. I could, and have, sat all day with her trying to explain something, but my words were worthless to her if I didn’t have the proof to support my statements. She is a mathematician, two and two are always going to equal four in her mind unless I provide a formula to arrive at a different conclusion. You appear to be the same way. People you love, and trust have told you about a different life, a life you had with a different mother. You want to believe them, because you have faith in them not to lie to you. Yet, you still can’t get yourself to accept it as true.”

Cooper crossed his arms and leaned back into the couch, taking a more laxed position as he scrutinized the speaker. Sarcastically he retorted, “Sounds cool, wish I remembered her.” Clint gave Cooper a stern ‘dad’ look which told the boy to stop the arrogance. The tone and body language that Cooper was using reminded Clint of Tony. It was exactly something he would say and do. Had his son always acted like this or was the behavior something new? He thought back to all the times someone told him that Cooper got his behavior from his father. It turns out that wasn’t the case, the Stark genes were strong in this one.

“Would you like to?” Xavier asked.

Clint didn’t see where this was going. The boy was only three when everything happened, the chances of any memories from that age were near impossible. He was already worried about the effects of the disturbing event back then and the ones recently on his son’s emotional health. The best solution to this mess was for Kate and Cooper to create some type of mother and son relationship and move on, forgetting the past. It didn’t matter if Clint and Kate got back together, the priority was for the kids having a somewhat stable and happy lives from this point on. But the chances for that were slim if these people were leading his son on with promises of remembering someone and something from long ago. Clint attempted to nicely get around the offer, “He wasn’t effected by the wipe.”

Xavier was aware of everything Clint was thinking. He didn’t want to evade the man’s private thoughts, but this was a unique situation. He needed to know how this father acted towards his children. Would he help or hinder Charlotte if permitted into her life?  He was pleased to see that the agent seemed to be a good father, as Director Fury had told him earlier, but Professor X needed to see it himself. “Agent Barton, you can’t remember her because you do not have access to the memories. Your son doesn’t remember because he was too young to recall certain memories, not because he can’t retrieve them. I could assist in that, with your permission of course.”

This guy wasn’t taking Clint’s hint to leave it alone. What did he mean by assisting Cooper’s recall of his memories? “I don’t understand.”

Charles wanted Clint to allow him to investigate the child’s mind. He had spent ten years with Katherine, curious of her past. The implant that S.H.I.E.L.D. had installed on her brain had barred him from the seven years prior to her arrival on campus. He knew the implant was there, but Hank didn’t want to do a scan on Katherine, fearful of what the x-rays would do to the gamma radiation poisoning within her.  Two years ago, two students got into a fight in the school’s hallway.  Katherine attempted to break it up and only received a concussion for her troubles. The medical staff was concerned about a skull fracture, so Hank had agreed to a CT Scan on her, under his supervision. That was when finally, they saw the implant and tracked it to S.H.I.E.L.D.  Xavier was also curious about Katherine’s relationship with Agent Barton, hopefully the young man would process memories of his parents together. It would make talking to Katherine later much easier if he had some of the more personal information, but he needed Clint’s permission to do anything. “I have the ability to read minds and recall the memories of others. I could access Cooper’s memories of Katherine and let him have them.”

Cooper tried to get his father’s attention, “Dad”

Putting his index finger up in Cooper’s direction, Clint protested, “Hold on Coop, Professor Xavier, I appreciate the offer, but I am afraid that will do more damage than it would help.”

“Dad, “the teenager tried to interject once more.

“I understand your concerns Clint,” Professor Xavier used his first name to make it more personal, “I can recall his memories with Katherine, in a sense giving him back his mother. I would stop prior to the switch and wipe. That is probably best left unknown to Cooper at this time.”

Cooper stood up, hoping that Clint would take notice of him, “Dad”

Clint quickly glanced to his son, then back to Xavier, “Can you guarantee that? I can only imagine how traumatic that experience was for him. He was three years old and someone took him and gave him to Laura. He was just a toddler and placed with a stranger. The only saving grace we have is that he doesn’t remember that.”

“Dad.” Cooper was starting to become frustrated. They were talking about him, but not allowing him to comment or express his opinion.

“God damn it Barton.” Everyone looked to Nick Fury who up until this point had not said a single word since the meeting started.  Once Fury had everyone’s attention he continued, “Cooper would like to say something. Cooper, what were you trying to tell your dad?”

Suddenly the child was shy when he discovered that he was holding the room’s attention, finding his confidence he told his dad, “I want to do it.”

Clint stood up to match his son’s stance. “Cooper, this isn’t a magician asking for a volunteer at a show. This is serious.”

Cooper tried to unearth the words to support his thinking to his father, and everyone else. “I know, but I’m thinking if I remember her, then when I meet her it won’t feel weird. Because I’ll already know her.”

Thinking of others had never been a strong suit of Tony Stark, but there had recently been some changes to his priorities. In a matter of days, Cooper had become one of the most important people to him, and like Clint, had concerns about the boy’s mental health if he did this. Tony could only assume that Cooper thought that by remembering Kate, all his troubles would be over. Unfortunately, Tony had to burst that bubble, “Yes, you would have some memories of her, but she still won’t remember you.”

Charles didn’t have to read Clint and Tony’s mind to know what they were thinking, it was distinct on their faces and in their voices. He wasn’t sure if what he was about to suggest would help his argument or give them a stronger one against him. “I can give her the memories that Cooper has, and you also Clint. You won’t remember all of the seven years; just what Cooper has.”

Clint’s eyes widen in disbelief, and spoke so low as if he was trying his best to hide any emotion that may escape with his words, “Can you really do that?”

Professor X smiled at the notion of finally gaining some headway, “I wouldn’t have offered it if I couldn’t. I would just need a quiet place for us to do it in. Think about it Clint, you don’t have to decide anything right now, we can do it after the meeting has concluded. You know Cooper wants to, so it’s up to you now.” He didn’t like putting it all on Clint’s shoulders, especially when considering everything the man had just  gone through, but he had a feeling that this Agent Barton could handle it.

Tony had watched the discussion with a rapid heartbeat that he was positive everyone in the room could hear. He was willing every cell in his body against going over and shaking Clint until he agreed to do it.  Finally, when it looked like Xavier was making some progress, Tony was able to calm down. He was waiting until Cooper and Clint sat back down before continuing the meeting, “While Clint sits over there debating the moral implications of probing his son’s memory, tell us about Charlie and Kate.”

Professor Xavier addressed Tony, “Of course, that is why we are here. That and a few other matters we can get to later.” Then he turned away from Tony to ask Clint directly, “What would you like to know?”

Clint had a million questions, but suddenly he could not think of any to save his life. Reflecting on the numerous conversations he had about Charlie and Kate in the past days, he tried to pick out any question that he had asked and not been given an answer to. There was one such question he had with Natasha, “Charlie is a mutant correct? What are her abilities? Why is HYDRA so engaged in retrieving her?” For someone who was just searching moments ago for a question, he couldn’t stop them from coming, then another thought hit him, “I’m sorry, is that the acceptable term? I’m new to this and don’t want to start off by offending people.”

Charles released a small chuckle at the remark, “The scientific term is Homo sapiens superior or simply Homo superior, but the term mutant is perfectly acceptable. You aren’t offending anyone. Regarding your daughter’s specific mutation or enhancement, Charlotte has a condition known as Hyperthymesia.”

Tony cut in, “That’s like a photographic memory?”

The Professor was used to people interjecting when he was talking, but he hadn’t completed his diagnosis of the girl’s mutation before her grandfather interrupted with his layman term for the child’s condition. “They are commonly used interchangeably, but no. Hyperthymia is the condition when a person can recall every moment of their life, every image, date, day, color, and sensory input.

Stark started to laugh, the looks he received as a result made him swiftly stop. Why was he the only one who saw the ridiculousness? “I’m sorry, that was not appropriate, but that’s her super power? Her memory?  I understand HYDRA wants her to use her DNA to create more mutants, but the ability to recall isn’t’ really a big deal to me. A cheap cell phone can do that. They could grab any mutant off the street and get their blood, why stalk a little girl for ten years?”

Not seeing the amusement in the issue at hand, Xavier countered in a serious tone, “Not a lot of mutants were exposed to gamma radiation in utero and had their X-gene triggered moments after birth. In fact, Charlotte is the first one. She is the youngest mutant we have record of. There are only a few cases of Hyperthymesia documented worldwide. And as far as her ‘super power’ goes, her main mutation is that she can manifest anything she has seen. Can a cheap cell phone do that Mr. Stark?”

Accepting that he had been put in his place, Tony replied, “Obviously not Professor Xavier.”

Clint had listened to each and every single word that had been said about his daughter and her abilities and understood that it was all important. The issues brought up, he would need to research for a better understanding of later. However, he was obsessing on a specific comment that the Professor made, “Before you go into all of that. Could you please expand on what you mean by ‘triggered moments after birth’? You aren’t the first one to mention that to me, but you are the only one who would have the explanation. I have heard about these triggering episodes, and there isn’t anything that I like about them.”

Xavier had always seen himself in the grandfather role for Charlotte, having been a part of her life since she was a week old. So, the topic of her triggering was difficult for Charles to discuss. Deciding that it was best for everyone, including himself, to generalize the information and avoid the unpleasant details, he explained, “The terrorist group was astonished to discover that mother and child lived after the explosion. Immediately following Charlotte’s birth, they started the testing. Blood test conducted on the infant informed the scientists that the child carried the X-gene. HYDRA believed that was the missing component to their experiments. While it is true that there was a level of success to their experiments, it was not at the level of their expectations.  The organization had to conclude that the X-gene was crucial. The actual testing prior to the triggering of Charlotte is vague, but from what we have come to understand by questioning HYDRA agents at the scene is that HYDRA conducted a type of stress test on the infant. The purpose was so she would experience high stress and trauma, forcing the X-gene to activate.”

Clint wished he could unhear what the Professor just told him. A baby, HYDRA did that to a baby, his baby. The nightmares this conversation would inflict upon him would be nothing compared to his recent one. He had one card left to play - denial, “Then you really don’t know it happened. The guy could have been lying. She was a newborn.”

The Professor had to remind himself that he was speaking to Charlotte’s father, a man who appear to already care for the girl. He had to wonder if things would have been different if Clint had a hand in the upbringing, but then remembered the girl was only ten, there was still time for Clint to be a positive influence on her. Not saying that Charlotte didn’t have numerous people around her these last ten years, guiding her and teaching her about the way the world worked. And probably most importantly, how it would work for her as a mutant. Hank was staring at Charles, knowing what he was thinking. It was often that a mutant child had one supportive parent, but both parents on board was rare. Taking the lead on the conversation Hank answered Clint’s remarks, “We know it happened because the child was activated, and as Cooper pointed out earlier, there are only a few ways for a trigger to occur. Also, because Charlotte has told us. She remembers it. Her Hyperthymesia started with the activation. The few proven cases of the condition have the disadvantage of being influenced by personal interpretations of the memory, Charlotte’s is accurate without any of her own personal input into the memory. She described an incident in the HYDRA base where a nurse was feeding her, she was still hungry after she finished the bottle, so she created and placed another in the nurse’s hand. That nurse informed her superiors of it, and the experiments and testing were escalated. It only ended when we attacked the base and recovered her and Kate.”

Nope, that was the comment Clint wanted to unhear, in fact he wished he never agreed to this meeting. Should have just let Nick and Tony handle it, not involved himself or Cooper. That phone call about a multi-family member discount at the therapist’s office was moving higher and higher on Clint’s priory list. Cooper seemed to be handling the news of his sister’s torture better than himself due to the question the boy asked, “So, if I ask her to make me like a hundred dollars, since she has seen money, she could do that?”

Clint quickly shut his eyes, the entire topic of what happened to his infant sister, and Cooper asked that question? The teenager once again had the attention of the room on him. Professor Xavier took his time, finding the right words for the mutant’s older brother, “Yes, she could, and we have had a similar situation involving pennies and a fountain on campus. We however, do not encourage that type of behavior.”

Fury spoke up with concern, “Following that question about her ability, suppose if she had seen news footage of the battle of Sokovia. Would she be able to manifest an Ultron of her own?”

The professor nodded, “Director Fury, in the time it took you to say that sentence, she could have made thousands of Ultrons.”

Tony wasn’t buying it, “As the creator of Ultron, I am doubtful a ten-year-old could create a copy that would do as much damage as the real Ultron. It would probably just be a walking talking robot, it wouldn’t have the intellect or abilities of the original.”

“She doesn’t need to know how items work, it just does. Charlotte creates perfect replicas of the objects. Even as the creator, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the one you made versus the one Charlotte did.” Hank explained. “It’s actually very fascinating.”

Everyone just lapsed into silence, letting the weight of what was just said sink in. The importance of Charlie’s abilities and the danger it could cause in the wrong hands. It was the girl’s father who summed up the dilemma, “Ok, so that would be another reason for HYDRA to want her. Apparently, her blood isn’t the most valuable thing about her. Not only could she hold all the secrets to creating mutants in a lab, but she could single-handedly cripple both global economy and security.”

Charles Xavier agreed with the evaluation, “That would be on a small scale a fair assessment of the scenario.”

Clint question the recent change, “Why has HYDRA stepped up now? All because Laura’s cover was blown?”

The Professor answered, “Director Fury explained to me your domestic situation Agent Barton. Prior to a few days ago the only thing standing between HYDRA and Charlotte was the X-men. Things have now changed.”

Now that the meeting had turned strategic, Fury reported what he knew, “Our people inside have reported that Laura has been debriefed.” Clint was still needing a moment before getting into the mind frame of Laura being HYDRA. He was trying to digest Fury’s statement, his entire marriage and life to Laura had been reported to HYDRA as a mission debrief. Sadly, because to her all it was, was a mission.

Tony was always happy to call out hypocrites, and did so in a mocking manner, “And pray tell, how do you know that?”

The Director had nothing to be ashamed of as the tone of Tony’s voice implied, “Did you think it only worked one way? HYDRA had people in S.H.I.E.L.D. and we had no one there?”

“What did the debrief uncover?” Clint asked while keeping one eye on Cooper, unsure how the teenager would respond to a discussion about the terrorist acts of his ‘mother’.

Fury didn’t seem to have a problem with Cooper in the room and didn’t water down his report for the child’s behalf. “Laura’s recommendation is for HYDRA to strike now against the school before the Avengers get involved. They are hardly a match for the X-Men, but it is damn impossible with the X-Men and Avengers working together for a common goal.”

Sensing that there was more to the report, Clint prompted, “Was that all?”

“No, she also reported that it was highly likely that Clint would take the child off campus and hide her at the compound with the other children, undoubtedly with Tony’s assistance. That would be the reason why HYDRA is camped out all over the place.”

Hank followed up to the Director’s report, “We have had confirmation of HYDRA cells stationed off campus grounds, there was also a report of suspicious visitors attempting to get into the school just before classes started this morning. They, of course, were not granted access, and took off before they could be questioned. We have everyone on standby, waiting for instructions. We can coordinate between our two groups if that is alright. I don’t see the advantage in us both fighting the same fight alone when we should do it together and present a united front. That way everyone knows what everyone else is doing.”

The X-Men would help, that was one problem dealt with. HYDRA was breathing down their necks. The organization was slowly growing their presence and would have to make a move soon with that much manpower. Tony was silently grateful that he let Clint convince him to bring Captain in, “And Kate?”

Knowing that the question would come up sooner or later, the Professor had an answer ready to go, “She knows that HYDRA is up to something, but not the details. As you can imagine with her history, just saying the group’s name causes her to tense up. Hank and I have a meeting with her set up for this afternoon, in the meantime, we have added a few security measures for her and Charlotte.”

Clint was reassured to hear that Kate and Charlie’s safety was being seen to. “You’re going to tell her everything?” he asked.

“As much as she can handle, yes. Hank will ensure a safe environment.”

Dr. McCoy could see that Charles’ answer caused some to eye him with concern on what was meant by ‘safe environment’, and decided to expand on the explanation, “We are concerned about the impact of the information on her wellbeing. Don’t worry, she is perfectly fine, I just want to be cautious.  I will be reading her vitals the entire time, and ready with a sedative if need be. Of course, you will be informed as soon as it is over.”

This was almost too easy for Clint. He seriously could not be that close to seeing Kate and Charlie himself, if she agreed to the meeting of course. Nothing in this whole mess had gone easy, there had to be a catch. “What happens then?”

Xavier saw the change in the facial expression on the archer’s face, the man almost looked hopeful. “Then you and Katherine take over. I hope I speak for everyone here when I say if Charlotte and Katherine are safe and healthy, then it’s your relationship to do with as you see fit. I fear there is a lot of trouble coming our way in the coming days, and there is no need to add anymore limitations on you two. If you allow me to access your son’s memories, and he permits me to share them with Katherine and yourself, then perhaps that could help things. Make the first meeting a little less awkward so to speak.  I understand that Mr. Stark is working on a way to undo the memory wipe entirely.”

Nick Fury was quick to input, “That hasn’t been decided yet.”

Just as fast, Tony snapped, “Like hell it hasn’t. I just haven’t had the time yet to start, and you need time to get your people safe for it.”

Assuming everyone was on the same page when it came to Katherine and her child, Professor Xavier decided to move the meeting along to address what he considered lesser affairs on the agenda. “Now if there aren’t any more questions about Katherine and Charlotte, we have a few additional matters to discuss. We are interested in one of your members, or former members as it were, a Wanda Maximoff. I believe that the X-Men could help her control her abilities.”

Tony had been waiting for the X-Men to ask for something in return. He knew there was no way they would just volunteer to help. “So, what is this, a prisoner exchange? We give you Wanda, you’ll give us Kate?”

“Not at all Mr. Stark.” Xavier said starting to get irritated by the Ironman. “No one is giving anyone to anyone. Everything is dependent on their consent. However, I wouldn’t be honest if I said I haven’t seen the news, I know what happened to your group. Ms. Maximoff was never taught how to use her powers. It appears that she is just getting stronger without any guidance. I have experienced many students with a similar issue and would like to offer our assistance.”

Clint thought it was a good idea. Hell, they didn’t know how to train Wanda past anything physical, such as self-defense. The Avengers didn’t have the abilities to help Wanda control her powers, mostly because her full potential hadn’t manifested yet. There was however one tiny barrier, “Even if she was willing, she is in hiding after the Sokovia Accords, and…prison break.” Clint added the last part under his breath, but everyone still heard him.

Concluding that Clint was probably the most reasonable person in the room, Charles addressed his suggestion to him directly. “I believe that could be worked around. We have friends in D.C. and are attempting to make new ones. I am positive that a case could be presented for the United Nation to allow us to house Ms. Maximoff and train her.”

Clint nodded, seeing potential in the proposal. The Professor continued, “That brings me to our final piece of business. The Avengers have caused a bit of trouble for us with the Sokovia Accords. Secretary Thaddeus Ross has requested to visit our school and determine how much of a threat we are since he is in town already.” Xavier looked to Tony to drive home the point that the Avengers’ actions had consequences on others, not just themselves. “As I said, we have friends in the government who have been able to keep the United Nations and Secretary Ross off us for the past two years, but it seems they can’t buy us anymore time. The school is hosting a gathering tomorrow evening to honor the Secretary. Just a small get together with administration, staff, and a few selected students. We would be pleased for you all to join us.”

“Staff and students?” Clint inquired to the doctor.

Hearing both the posed question and the unspoken one, Hank answered Clint, “Pending on her emotional and physical reaction to this afternoon, yes, Kate will be there. The administration feels it is important to showcase our human instructor in unification with the mutant members of staff. I can’t guarantee Charlie’s attendance however, with the threat against her, it would probably be for the best to keep a low profile.”

“I’m game if you all are.” Tony said to Nick and Clint about the invitation. They didn’t say anything, so he took it as a ‘yes’.  “So, Clint, come to a decision yet?”

Clint hadn’t been listening, just focused on his impending meeting with Kate. “About what?”

‘Seriously?’ Tony thought, “What else, getting your head messed with again, you know they say third times the charm.”

Turning to Tony, Clint stated to him, “I know you think you’re funny.”

“But?” Tony asked waiting for the punch line.

Disregarding Tony with a shrug of his shoulders, “Nothing, just I know you think you’re funny.”  Pointing his interest to the Professor, “So, this memory thing, how does it work?”

“I can assure you, I am not ‘messing with your head’. I explore Cooper’s memories with a self-filter of only ones associated with Katherine. I have no need to see anything else, or desire to.” The last part of the statement was directed right at the teenager, knowing what possible fears Cooper may have of what Professor Xavier could see. “Once I am done, you will have full recall of anything I accessed. Then I will submit those same memories to your father’s mind. Then I will do the same thing to your mother this afternoon if she wants.”

Clint looked to Cooper, “You sure you want to do this?” The boy took a minute, then bobbed his head. “We’re ready when you are Professor.”

Nick Fury got up, “We will leave you to it then.”. He signaled to Tony for them to leave, seeing the indication, Hank stood up to joined them. The three left the office, giving Cooper and Clint the privacy that such an event would need.

~~~

Clint held his breath as the Professor placed a hand on each side of Cooper’s head. His son was lying down on the sofa in Tony’s office. Clint was standing across the room watching every move either Xavier or Cooper made. Charles Xavier leaned over Cooper’s head, “I’m about to start. You won’t feel anything physical.” Clint saw the rise of his son’s chest and the child said something that Clint could only assume was along the lines of ‘ok’. And just like that everything became silent and still. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Xavier spoke, “there she is”, as he turned his head towards Clint and smiled. The breath that Clint had been holding slowly released when he saw that Xavier wasn’t the only one smiling. Cooper, in his dream-like state had a smile on his face, clearly having a good memory.

About ten minutes later, the Professor opened his eyes and leaned back into his chair. He removed his hands from Cooper and folded them in his lap. Clint remained standing and waited for the older man to say something. Cooper stayed in his position lying on the couch, his eyes still shut, but Clint could tell that he wasn’t sleeping. Then he noticed it, a single tear had dislodged out of his son’s eye and was trailing down his face. “Cooper?”

At the sound of his name, Cooper opened his eyes and looked to his father. Suddenly aware of the tear, he brought his hand up and wiped it away. “I’m good dad.” The boy said knowing that the tear was why his dad was concerned. Cooper sat up on the couch and used the arms of the furniture to push himself up to be standing. Clint hastily made his way over to meet his son to steady him. “I’m good”, he repeated, waving off Clint’s assistance.

“Cooper?” Clint asked. It was a one-word question, but the teenager understood the whole meaning to it.

“Yeah dad, it worked. I remember her, I remember all of us, together. I remember my mom.” Cooper’s voice dropped with his last comment, he sounded sad. Clint wondered if the reason was the memories themselves or the lost the memories represented. The smile that had been on Clint’s son’s face slowly slipped away only to be replaced by a vacant expression. “Can I go to my room? I mean the room I used last night?”

There were a million things running through Clint’s head with Cooper’s request. He knew this was a bad idea. It was selfish of him to use his son in order to get answers to his own erased past. He was at a loss for words, the shame of what he just put his child through paralyzed him. “Clint,” a voice called him back to reality. Looking over to the Professor, Clint made eye contact, so the man knew he had his attention, and could speak, “he is alright, just as he said. I only gave him the good memories. A mother who loved him and his father, a happy home. He just needs time to process it all.” The older man grinned again, “Like I said, he is like his mother, he must see it to believe it. He has now seen it, so he needs time to accept and believe it.”

All Clint could do was accept Xavier and Cooper at their words, the child was alright. “Yeah, Coop, go right on up.” He scrutinized every aspect of the child as Cooper walked out the office, looking for something to be wrong. When the boy opened the door, Clint could see Tony sitting there in a chair against the hallway wall. As soon as Tony looked up to see Cooper coming out, he was up on his feet. He was just about to start bombarding the kid with questions when Clint yelled into the hallway, “Hey Tony, can you take Cooper up to my apartment? He can do it on his own, just watch him please so no one bothers him on his way there? He needs some time.” The look Tony gave told Clint that he got the message loud and clear, ‘leave the kid alone for now’.

“Are you ready now Clint?” Xavier asked, still in the same stance as Clint last saw him in.

Looking back into the hallway, Clint couldn’t see Cooper or Tony anymore. Shutting the door, he inquired skeptically, “What did you mean when you said that you only gave him the good memories?”

Xavier held out his hand towards the couch, indicating for Clint to come over and sit. “No one is perfect all the time Clint.”

Doing as required, Clint sat down decoding the meaning behind Xavier’s cryptic comment. “You mean we fought, in front of Cooper.”

Seeing that Clint was feeling uncomfortable by the X-Men leader having seen his domestic life, when he didn’t have access to it, Charles clarified. “It wasn’t just that. Yes, there was the occasional argument. Nothing that I doubt isn’t going on in every married couple’s home, I didn’t see the need for him to remember that. However, I was referring to the numerous, and unfortunately, I do mean numerous, times either you or Katherine came home injured. It frightened him at that age, as I’m sure it would now. So, I blocked his recall of those events.”

“Thank you?” Clint wasn’t positive that was the appropriate response, but it was all he could come up with in a timely manner.

“I can give you everything however, if that is what you want.” Xavier knew what the answer would be but still wanted to give Clint the option.

Clint swallow down any doubt he had about what he was about to do and demanded all of his courage to come to the surface, “Can’t take the good without the bad sir. Life isn’t just good memories, and that’s what I want, my life back.”

A person didn’t need to be a telepath to see that Clint was saying it for himself.  Professor Xavier predicted during the meeting that Clint was going to become someone he could respect, after seeing Cooper’s memories of his parents, he now knew that he did not only respect the man before him, but possibly liked him. It wasn’t a mystery anymore to him what Katherine saw in the archer, and soon it wouldn’t be one to Clint either. “Then please lay down, and we will begin.”

~~~

Tony had stayed with Cooper until the boy went to take a nap. He assumed the stress of all the recent events finally caught up with the kid. He knew that Cooper hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since the day before his visit to the farm, and the start of all of this chaos.  He patiently waited in the living room of Clint’s apartment until FRIDAY informed him that the child had fallen asleep. Tony had hoped the boy would have come out of his room to talk with him about what Xavier had shown him, but no such luck. Realizing that his grandson would sleep for a while, he returned to his chair in the hallway to wait for Clint to emerge from the office.

Xavier’s time with Clint was much longer than it had been with Cooper. However, finally Clint opened the door. Tony stood as he saw Barton moved back from the doorway to allow the Professor through first. “So?” Tony asked.

Charles Xavier offered his hand to Tony, “We are done here Mr. Stark, I look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow night. I will just collect Dr. McCoy and see ourselves out. We have another appointment to get to.”

Tony shook the hand and questioned about the participant of the next appointment, “Kate?”

Nodding his head, the Professor confirmed, “Yes, Katherine will be done with her classes by the time we get back.” With that, the Professor left, leaving Tony and Clint alone in the hallway.

“So?” Tony repeated, this time with a hint of annoyance.

“How is Cooper?” The concerned was thick with Barton’s question of his son’s wellbeing. That didn’t help Tony’s anxiety over what to two had been shown.

Tony was about to throttle the man if he didn’t give up the information soon, “Taking a nap upstairs. FRIDAY will inform me when he wakes up.  Are you going to make me beg?  What happened in there?  What did you see?”

There was something funny about Tony using FRIDAY as a baby monitor, but Clint didn’t have the strength to make a joke. “That’s good, he needed to sleep.” Everything in the present was taking a back seat to the past playing in Clint’s head. At last, he processed that Tony said something after informing him of Cooper’s whereabouts. Deciding that he couldn’t emotionally or physically handle getting into everything now, he offered, “Cooper had a lot of memories of her. I know who she was to me now.”

Tony was in utter disbelief, “That’s it?”

“Stark,” Clint said in a very formal tones showing his seriousness, “I need to be alone for a little while. What I now know…it’s a lot.” Clint understood now why Cooper reacted the way he did after his own session with the Professor. “We’ll talk, I promise. But now, I have some thinking to do, and we have a whole heap of work to get going on. I’ll meet you all in a few hours.”  Clint moved past Tony and started down the hallway to the elevator.

Not doubting that he had work to do, there was always work that needed to be done. However, clarification was needed, what work was Clint referring to?  “What heap of work?”

Clint didn’t look back, “finding a safe way to both getting my wife and daughter back and undoing this damn wipe.”


	19. Chapter Eighteen ~ Shocking Dodgeball

Chapter Eighteen

Kate was so engrossed in her grading that she didn’t even hear the request being made from the doorway. When her brain finally recognized that she was being spoken to, Kate lifted her head up to the source. When she saw that it was her daughter standing there she asked, “What? I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”

The child was used to her mother being lost in her thoughts, so the request for a repeat wasn’t anything new. “I said, can I go play in the courtyard with Aisha and the others?”

Checking the time on her computer, Kate became suspicious. Classes had been over for forty minutes, why was Charlie just now showing up? The child had a strict routine of reporting to her mother’s classroom right after school ended. “Where have you been?”

The girl with raven black hair and piercing blue eyes which were identical to her mother innocently replied, “Nowhere.”

In the tone that every mother becomes fluent with at delivery Kate stressed, “Charlotte.”

Conceding, the girl admitted, “I had detention.”

Closing her eyes, prepping herself for the follow up, “Why?”

“It’s all in the note.” Charlie said casually as she walked over to the desk and handed her mother an envelope that was sealed shut.

Taking the envelope from the child, Kate looked it over and sarcastically replied, “Yay, a note.” Placing the paper in front of her, she stared at her daughter, “Now, where is the real note?”

Kate could see the wheels in her daughter’s head turning, probably planning her next lie. Having a child that could create anything that she had seen definitely did have its drawbacks when it came to discipline. A mother had to quickly develop several coping techniques regarding a child such as Charlie. The current game that was being played wasn’t in any way original and had been done countless times before. A teacher would write Kate a note about Charlie’s behavior in class, and Charlie would produce another note to give to her mother. How Kate and the teachers got around this one was for the teacher to mark the envelope in some way. In a way so small that Charlie wouldn’t think to look at it. So far it had worked, and Charlie was unaware to the reason why. The envelope that she was just handed was pristine, lacking any modifications or marks.

Charlie jumped when a voice spoke from behind her, “I’m going to assume that this is something important that the pup was trying to throw away.” Turning around she saw that James Logan, the Wolverine, was standing behind her with another envelope in his hand. “What did you do this time?” he asked as he reached over the desk and handed Kate the real letter. Kate opened and read it quickly, hearing the back and forth between her daughter and Logan.

“I didn’t do anything wrong, the game was too easy.” The girl protested to the taller man who was hovering over her.

Sitting down on top of one of the student’s desk, Logan asked, “What game?”

Charlie started to take off her backpack but struggled due to having both a sweater and jacket on. Kate guess that she was wearing both because Charlie was hoping to be allowed outside to play as she finished reading the note. Charlie explained to Logan what game she was referring to, “Dodgeball in gym class today.”

Logan assisted the child who seemed to be having difficulties getting the bag off her shoulders. “You guys are still allowed to play that?” Looking to Kate, “Thought it was banned in schools nowadays.”

“It’s not here, at least up till today it wasn’t. Charlie, this says that you replaced the soft foam balls with identical ones that shocked on impact?” Logan couldn’t help but start laughing at the picture Kate painted. She was fast to put a halt to his amusement, “It’s not funny, someone could have been seriously hurt. How did you even think of such a thing? Where have you seen that?”

“Not funny, but this one is on me.” Kate rose an eyebrow at Logan and he continued, “I may have brought Charlie down the other day to the weapons and defense lab while you were in that staff meeting, you remember, the one I skipped? Well, they were working on a light weight ball that could be thrown at someone and incapacitate the person on impact. I may have said, in a joking way of course, ‘dodgeball just upped its game’.

“Well, that may be, but she still needs to be punished. In fact, you both need to be punished. So, Charlie, no, you may not go out and play, and Logan, you are on babysitting duty. And that does not mean take her down to the lab again. I have a meeting to get to, and no, I don’t know how long I will be.” As far as the punishments Kate could lay down, this wasn’t bad Logan thought as he pulled out and lit a cigar. Kate bent down to kiss Charlie on top of her head and left the room, only to pop her head back in a moment later, “And please don’t smoke around her.”

Logan called back knowing that Kate was already gone, “If I recall correctly I was smoking a cigar when I killed the HYDRA nurse holding Charlie and you didn’t say anything about that?”

Charlie looked at him confused, “Because she wasn’t there. She was sick in the other room.”

“Yeah, I know pup. I shouldn’t have brought it up.” Logan felt bad for saying something like that in front of Charlie, especially since the kid remembered the whole damn ordeal. That moment still gave them both nightmares, seeing the nurse holding the crying infant with tubes hanging off her, it set something off in his head. A memory of a similar experience of him as an adult being experimented on. He snapped, and by that he meant he snapped the nurse’s neck and grabbed Charlie before the nurse could drop her. That moment, Logan and Charlie bonded, and they had been thick as thieves since.

~~~

Kate knocked on the office door, then waited for a response. She didn’t have long to wait. She hadn’t even lowered her arm all the way back to her side when the door opened revealing Doctor Henry McCoy.

“Good afternoon Kate, please come in.” The doctor said stepping aside to permit her entrance to the room.

Kate smiled, “And good afternoon to you too Hank.” Seeing Xavier behind his desk, Kate extended the greeting, “and to you Professor.”

Charles nodded in greeting, “Hello Katherine, please sit down. We have a lot to discuss.”

Taken back by the comment she questioned, “Do we now?”

Xavier didn’t want to delay the inevitable, “Yes, where is Charlotte?”

Sitting down in one of the two chairs opposite the Professor as Hank took the other, Kate answered, “With Logan. Did you hear about what happened in the gym?”

Allowing a rare playful smile to quickly appear, the school’s superintendent acknowledged the incident, “I did. I was planning on talking to Charlotte tomorrow about it.”

Kate was just about to throw Logan under the bus for his part of ‘shocking dodgeball’ when Hank pulled out his medical kit, “Would you mind if I put this blood pressure monitoring cuff on you and pulse reader?”

She didn’t, Hank had been her doctor since her first day with the X-Men, but she was curious as of the reason, “Why?”

Grabbing her attention, Xavier explained the reason for the meeting, “Katherine, we need to tell you some things that have recently come to light. They could be hard to hear, and we want to make sure that you are all right during it.”

This wasn’t good, if Hank and the Professor were going through all this trouble to tell her something, it wasn’t because they wanted to have a friendly chat with her. “You’re afraid that I am going to stress out and the drug protocol won’t work.”

Using some of the end space on Charles’ desk to set up the monitor’s display, Hank confirmed, “Unfortunately, that is a possibility. I will be monitoring your vitals, if I feel that anything is going wrong, I will sedate you.” The doctor pulled out a syringe from his bag and placed it alongside the display. “The sedative is fast acting, so the poison’s effects won’t have time to surface before you are put out.”

She was confused, “It’s never happened before, why do you feel the need to go through such precautions now?”

Adjusting himself so that he could face Kate in his seat, Hank elaborated on the situation they were currently in, “While that’s true, you have never been placed under this specific type of stress before. We don’t know how you will react, so we want to be ready. I rather have everything here and not need it then have nothing and need it. Do you trust me?”

Without hesitation Kate replied, “Of course I do.” Doctor McCoy took that as consent and wrapped the cuff around her upper right arm, placing a pulse reading device on her index finger.

Jumping right into it Xavier asked, “Could you please tell us if the name Clint Barton seems familiar to you?”

“No sorry, should it?” Kate had experienced this ‘test’ before, people would ask her something to test her memory. She really wasn’t in the mood for the game today.

The Professor jotted something down on a writing tablet in front of him, the whole scene made Kate feel like she was connected to a lie detector machine. Laying his pen down on the tablet, Xavier continued, “Yes, but we will get into that later. What about the name Cooper Francis Barton, does that ring any bells?”

She took a minute to think about it and was surprised as anyone with her answer, “Cooper? Yes, that does seem familiar, I’ve heard that name before. In fact, it rings more than a bell, who is he?”

Hank observed, “So, Stark’s theory was correct, a memory could be triggered.”

It was a blast from the past for Kate, “Stark, as in Tony Stark?” Seriously? This meeting was about him? It wasn’t a mystery to Kate about Stark, she had always known about her true paternity. Her mother told her at an early age that Derek wasn’t her real father. It had all come out after a dinner party one night that Derek hosted. Her ‘sister’, Susan, had been away at school at the time, so Kate and her mother had the responsibility of showing what a good and trustworthy family man Derek was in front of his colleagues. Someone had a little too much to drink and said something about Kate to him, and Derek exploded. A lot of the things that were said still echoed in Kate’s ears even almost three decades later. Afterwards, her mother came to her room and explained everything.  It was never mentioned again after that. If anything, Derek kept a tighter rein on Kate from then on. She was his ticket to high society, as long as the world thought he was the father of the heiress to both Bishop Publishing and McIntosh Pharmaceuticals, he was untouchable. Even Stark Industries, the biggest name in the corporate game, had to take notice of Derek Bishop, and he loved every minute of it. So, if she was here to discuss Stark, she was fine, she had made her peace with it a long time ago.  Kate didn’t have anything against the guy, just didn’t know him. It was a silent agreement between the two, each knew the other existed and left it at that.

“That’s why we are here? To discuss my mom’s baby’s daddy?” She laughed at all the drama she was just put through. “Well Hank, rest assure, I’m not going to undo all of your hard work by freaking out over Tony Stark.”

The Professor treaded lightly with his next words, “Yes, well that’s good to hear, but we spoke to him and a few of his acquaintances today, one being Director Nick Fury.”

That name did cause Kate to feel uneasy as was evident when the monitor her arm was attached to beeped once. Looking to McCoy for an explanation, he smiled reassuringly at her, “No big deal, your reading is just a bit higher than the last one. Nothing to be concerned about yet.”

‘Yet’? What the hell did he mean by that Kate wondered. A doctor should never say, ‘nothing to be concerned about yet’, there is no such thing as ‘pre-concern’. Redirecting her mind back to the meeting they had earlier she inquired, “Fury? You met with Fury today? Does this have anything to do with the increase of security around here? It’s because of Charlie isn’t it? How does Stark fit into this?”

The Professor confirmed, “Yes Katherine, there is an escalated danger against Charlotte. I would prefer that you and Charlotte move back into the mansion until the threat is neutralized.” Kate and Charlie lived in a small cottage on the campus’ grounds. It was a gift from Professor X when Charlie turned one. Kate had always suspected that he did it to achieve a decent night’s sleep. Charlie was never a good sleeper. And during the first year, half the staff walked around the campus like zombies from the baby’s refusal to sleep. Charles Xavier watched as Katherine thought about his suggestion and continued, “There have been some recent developments with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the wipe.”

Being shaken out of her thoughts about what would be needed for a move, she asked for clarification, “The what?”

Charles had to backtrack, he forgot that they had purposely kept Katherine out of the loop when the Director first came to them, for fear of what such news would do to her, “The wipe, that is what S.H.I.E.L.D. called the event that happened back in 2008 that erased every agent’s memory.”

Kate sat there in bewilderment, carefully weighting the implications of what she had been told. “Every agent? It wasn’t just me?”

Kate had always been under the impression that whatever happened to her memory ten years ago was because of the treatment she received at the hands of HYDRA.  Even when Director Fury came and informed them that thousands had been affected, they shielded Kate from that information. Her medical condition due to the gamma radiation poisoning didn’t start to stabilize until just last year, when Hank finally figured out the right formula to block the gamma radiation particles from taking ahold of her white blood cells. Her condition improved literally overnight.  She was still in the trial stage of the medication protocol, but it had been working. Xavier just prayed it would continue to now as he told her what had happened to her and all her former associates. “No, the World Security Council issued a full wipe on everyone with the implant.”

She had heard about the Council before, the Captain American debacle in Washington D.C. a few years ago had been all over the news. She remembered watching the congressional hearings that followed.  “I thought HYDRA did it?”

Hank didn’t want Charles taken the full load of responsibility for telling Kate that they had not been honest with her back then. They had to own up to the choices they had made a year ago, “Yes, but back then HYDRA and the Council were, and maybe perhaps still to this day are, one in the same. I’m sorry, we weren’t completely honest with you when Director Fury visited. We had concerns what the knowledge would do to you. At the time, we didn’t have even a quarter of the information we do now.”

The questions generating for Kate were too many to count, but one stuck out in the forefront of her mind, “Why did they do it?”

This conversation was a lot easier back at the compound, but then again, Professor Xavier didn’t have any relationship with that meetings participants. Katherine was a friend and colleague to him, and now he shared with Hank the responsibility of explaining everything that had happened to her. “The common factor was…you.” Katherine’s eyes begged him to expand on that, so Xavier pushed on, “You were about to expose HYDRA’s deep cover within the agency. They had to take you out of the equation, for many reasons. One was because of your connection with a up and coming agent, another, was your exposure of the HYDRA invasion into S.H.I.E.L.D., and lastly, Charlotte. They needed to be sure that no one would come looking for you”

She was just a mother and math teacher. Her past life as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was unknown to her. Kate was told last year that she had been part of the organization, but she had never been able to internalize that into how she identified herself. Her attention turned again to her daughter, “What’s changed and how does this effect Charlie?”

Checking her vitals again, satisfied with the readings, Hank gave the abridged version of the string of events that had led them to this moment, “Simply put? Someone came looking for you. Tony Stark, your father.”

“Why?” She then shook her head and gestured a circle as she spoke again, “Timeout, I feel that we are stuck in a loop here. You tell me something, I ask a question, and you answer by telling me something new, and around and around we go.” They were jumping around, she needed them to start from the beginning.  “So, let’s start from the top. You both attended a meeting today with Nick Fury and Tony Stark. You mentioned earlier that there were others in attendance?”

Professor Xavier knew they were closing in on the real purpose of the meeting, not that telling Katherine about the wipe wasn’t important, it just wasn’t at the top of the list of knowledge she needed to have today. “There were only two others, Clint and Cooper Barton.”

Those were the names she was tested earlier about, now perhaps she could achieve some clarity on their importance, “And they would be?”

Professor Xavier moved closer to the desk in front of him and folded his hands, “Katherine, I feel the need to be blunt. There isn’t a delicate way to put any of this that would lessen the blow, Clint Barton is your husband.”

Kate’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline in shock, “Come again?”

Xavier glossed over her question and pressed ahead with defending the man. “He is as confused and anxious as you are. His memory was also wiped, he had no idea who you were until a day or so ago. Tony pieced enough together to put you with him, and Director Fury filled in the gaps.”

“That was nice of Director Fury to be honest with Tony,” The sourness was clear in her voice, and she didn’t care. Fury had located her at the school, spoken to her about her past career as his employee, and didn’t think it worth a mention about a husband who also had his memory wiped. There was probably a lot more to that revelation, the second name that was more familiar to her may be the key to fully understanding, “and pray tell who this Cooper is?”

McCoy’s eyes went straight to the monitor display and grabbed the sedative, nodding his head to Xavier that he could go ahead and drop the bomb, he was ready to go if need be. With a deep inhale the Professor told her, “Your son with Clint.”

Kate’s body froze in place, she couldn’t hear anything in the room and was unable to focus her eyes, just spots of color all around her. First thought was that Hank had used the sedative on her. That was the least of her problems, a good nap would be welcomed after hearing that type of news. A son. She had a son. A son with Clint Barton. If the Professor and doctor were telling her this, it had to be the truth. She understood now why she was connected to the medical equipment, if anything was going to cause her stress, being told of a life and family abandoned to the past, would do it.  Slowly the world came back to life around her. The face of Professor Xavier became clear, he was looking at her to say something. What does a person say to a surprise such as that? Struggling to have her brain transfer words to her mouth, she said the first thing that came to her, “Wow, when you say you’re going to be blunt, you don’t hold back.”

The two men looked to each other, stunned as much at her reaction as she was. Out of the corner of her eye, Kate saw Hank release the sedative filled syringe and reclined into the chair. She must still be doing alright she deduced to herself.  Taking calm and relaxing breaths to keep herself under control she continued as she watched Hank mess with the monitor, “And you sat in a meeting with both of them today?”

Realizing she was looking at him, McCoy turned towards her, “Yes”

Offering him a small smile as her way to promise him that she was indeed alright, she contemplated what type of question a mother should ask when she learns about her child’s existence. “How was he?”

The Professor started in with his impression of the child, “Cooper appears to be a brilliant young man. The meeting was highly tense, but he kept up and contributed along with everyone else. Takes after his mother I would say.”

Kate waited tolerantly for him to continue, when he didn’t she pressed, “What else?”

Charles searched his memory, trying to think of anything he noticed about Cooper, “His father is very protective of him, especially with everything that has happened recently, but the boy seems able to handle himself well.”

Tilting her head slightly, she asked, “Recently?”

“When the wipe occurred, HYDRA set up their people within both S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Barton home.” Hank summarized for her, “Clint was very important to the future of the agency and placing someone in the home that Clint felt he could confide in was critical to the success of the infiltration.”

“They replaced me.” It was a conclusion, not a question. Kate was smart, smart enough to read between the lines.

“They did,” Xavier admitted, “her name was Laura. Clint was at S.H.I.E.L.D., and probably arranging your rescue from HYDRA at the time it happened.  She contacted Clint immediately after the wipe took affect and had him and another agent come to her, a farmhouse in Iowa. She claimed it was their home, hers and Clint’s. Clint didn’t have any memory of his time with you. He couldn’t dispute anything she told him, and he didn’t see a reason to try. No one did. Her name showed up in his cell phone, she had Cooper, and told Clint she was expecting again. Clint had a sonogram on him at the time, so her being pregnant collaborated the evidence he had on him. Nobody at S.H.I.E.L.D. saw the con.”

“A sonogram?” Kate asked thinking that it was an odd object to carry around.

The Professor grinned, as he did any time the child was mentioned, “Charlotte.”

Nodding as she processed the concept of a total stranger having her sonogram, not really a stranger she had to remind herself, but at this point might as well be. The concept of a husband was too much to compute at this time. She was a math teacher, at least now she was, so one and one does equal two, “Listen, I don’t want to be that person, but I have to ask.”

Hank knew what she meant, and answered the unspoken question, “Clint is Charlotte’s father.” While the Professor was working with Clint and Cooper in the office back at the compound, Dr. McCoy was able to procure a DNA sample of Clint’s to compare with Charlotte. Not trusting the system at the Avengers’ base, he had waited until he returned to his own lab at the school.

It was the conclusion to a ten years old matter for Kate. She had a child and found herself alone in the world. She knew that she didn’t get Charlotte by herself, but obviously the other contributing party was absent. “Thank you. I honestly didn’t know where to go with this if you said differently.” She ended her remark with a small embarrassed giggle, then became serious again. “How is he? As a father?”

The Professor restated his earlier comment, “Like I said, he seemed to be very protective of the boy. Everything indicates that he is an exceptional and supportive father. I had to persuade him to let me read Cooper.”

“I know this is a lot Kate, but it will get better. They are coming tomorrow to attend the reception for Secretary Ross.”

Kate didn’t acknowledge Hank’s attempt at reassurance, she heard it, but did not address the approaching meeting of her family. She kept her eyes on Xavier, “You read him? What was the reason for that?”

“You and Clint don’t remember, but Cooper did. He was three when the wipe occurred. I was able to give the child access to his memories of you prior to the wipe. He loved you Katherine, Clint as well. Cooper allowed me to let his father see his memories also, so they would know who you… who you used to be. Through the eyes of your child. Cooper said that I could also share them with you.”

“Kate, I know you have a lot of questions. Let me try to bring you up to speed on what has occurred. The details can wait until later. Tony Stark started researching the wipe with the documents that Steve Rogers emptied onto the internet. He connected some dots and figured out that you were involved in it. Suddenly feeling the need to act paternal towards you, he started a search for your whereabouts. In the process he blew Laura Barton’s cover as Clint’s wife. She acted out, but everyone is safe.” McCoy purposely left out the four dead guards and the poisoning, fearing that would be too much. “Clint was both a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and Avenger, so he and Cooper have taken refuge in the Avengers’ compound here in New York. HYDRA knows they must make a move for Charlotte before either, the X-Men and Avengers join up to take HYDRA out, or Stark finds a way to undo the wipe altogether, and they have the rage of S.H.I.E.L.D. raining down upon them for revenge. Most likely a very violet combination of the two, in my opinion. Either way the situation goes, they have to move now.”

“That was… a lot… to get caught up to speed on.” Kate slowly stated, then composed herself, “Like you said the details can wait. What do we do to ensure Charlotte’s safety?”

“As I mentioned earlier, I would like you two to move back into here for the time being. Also, it would be best if Charlotte always has someone with her at all times, one of the X-Men. I will be developing a schedule for shift rotation.”

Feeling as if finally, she had some control in the conversation, Kate agreed to the request, “I will pack us a bag, let me know where else I can assist.”

Pleased that she was going to move back into the house without any protests, Charles offered, “It should only be for a short time, then you can move back to your residence. Now, do you have any additional questions?”

That was a loaded question if Kate ever heard one. Of course, she had questions. She had just been told that she was part of an international spy organization whose bosses decided to erase everyone’s mind and if that wasn’t bad enough, her family was torn apart in the process. What sane person wouldn’t have a few follow up questions regarding that? “I do, and I don’t know why with everything going on, I want this question answered, but I do. How did Laura get Cooper to the farmhouse? I was in Africa with HYDRA, and Clint was setting up a rescue mission, who had Cooper?”

Charles had to admit he took some liberties with Cooper’s memories. While it was true Cooper only had the good ones with Katherine, Xavier had dug a bit deeper into the child’s subconscious to access answers to the questions he knew Katherine would have. One such predicted question was the riddle of how Cooper ended up in Iowa with Laura directly after the wipe. It was answered by the child’s own memory of the event. A painful and terrifying one that the Professor kept blocked in the child’s mind. It was bad enough he had to experience the event once, there was no need to give Cooper the ability to replay it over in his mind. It sadly was also preluded by the child’s last memory of his mother, her leaving for the mission. “You had a friend who lived across the hall from you and Clint. Her name was Simone.”

This story didn’t sound like it was going to end with ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ to Kate, “Was?”

“Yes,” Professor Xavier continued, “you would often put Cooper into Simone’s care whenever you and Clint had an overnight mission. She was in a sense, your daycare provider. You were only supposed to be gone a day, but as you know, that didn’t go as planned. In the middle of the night, HYDRA broke into Simone’s apartment. She was a good person. She did everything in her power to protect Cooper, to the point of giving her life.”

“Oh my God.” Kate didn’t know how she was with Cooper, a situation that the Professor had offered to rectify, but she knew how she was with Charlotte. She wouldn’t let just anyone watch her child, especially for an extended period of time. For Kate to be able to do that, she must have trusted this Simone, a trust that given the result was rightly placed. Simone had given her life to save her son. If nothing else came from this meeting, Kate would make it a priority to visit Simone’s grave and thank her in person.

“They killed Simone and took Cooper. Giving him to this Laura woman to impersonate Clint’s wife, and Cooper’s mother at a farmhouse in Iowa.”

Permitting Kate some time to process the sacrifice that a good friend made for her son, Hank pulled out of his medical bag all the equipment that would be needed for withdrawing a small amount of blood, “I think it would be a good idea to take a blood sample now.”

Suddenly feeling very tired, she complied, “Sure, whatever, why not? Everything else has been taken, why not my blood as well?” She didn’t even feel as the needle punctured her skin, she was numb.

The last time either Xavier or McCoy had seen Kate this defeated was in the early days after her rescue, when they had to tell her the severity of her injuries and illness. The Professor attempted to find a resolution to the downward spiral Kate was caught in, “Everything hasn’t been taken from you, and anything that was can be given back.”

Gravely, she stated the obvious, “Not the last ten years.”

“No, sadly, those are gone. However, I can give you your son’s memories of you.” Xavier told her as the Professor turned to Hank, “Dr. McCoy, we will be moving to the couch so please adjust the equipment to reach that far. I would like for you to continue monitoring her vitals during this process.”

~~~

“Why is it important?” Charlotte asked looking up from her earth science textbook.

Logan hadn’t been paying attention to anything the kid had been reading out loud to him, he quickly assessed the situation and responded in a way he thought was most appropriate. “Because it’s your homework, that’s why.”

Charlie seemed to accept his answer and went back to her book. The concentration was clear on her face, enough so that Logan wondered if she was having trouble with the text. He was just about to ask her if she needed help when her head popped up again, “Since I’m looking at the picture now, could I do it?”

They were sitting on a bench in the courtyard. Kate said the kid couldn’t play, not that she was prohibited from going outside. Logan thought that by getting the girl to do her homework before Kate came back would get Charlie off punishment, and Logan some brownie points. Looking down at the diagram on the page she was focused on. He didn’t see anything interesting there, just a picture of how the earth used to look when it was Pangea and how plate tectonics worked.  Failing to find what she was struggling with he asked, “Do what?” Then the reality of what the child was suggesting hit him, “Oh, no, please don’t reconnect the continents.”

Returning to the book Charlie questioned, “Do you think I could?” Focusing her attention now on him, “I could make a new Pangea. Then we all could live there, and no one could hurt us.”

Charlotte was like her mother, not dumb. She had seen the increase in security that had started this morning on Xavier’s orders. He issued them right before he and Hank went away for a meeting off campus, which was a rarity. The girl knew something was going down.  Feeling that it wasn’t his place right now to discuss the terrorist organization that had given her nightmares her entire young life resurfacing and plotting to take her, he thought about her question.  Logan assumed in theory she could. She had seen the picture in her textbook, so she should be able to copy it. However, a manifestation of anything resembling what she was asking about hadn’t been tested on her, so he didn’t know if it was past her ability, or if she even had a limit.   “I am not the best person to ask about this kind of thing. I think you should talk to Professor Xavier.”

“I will,” That seemed to quiet her down for the moment. The Professor always entertained Charlie’s questions. “There’s mom!” The child yelled as she stood up and pointed behind him. Turning he was shocked by Kate’s appearance, whatever happened at that meeting did a number on her.

The concern was heavy in his voice as he and Charlie walked over to meet Kate, “Is everything all right?” She looked pale, paler than normal. For a quick second he worried about her health, which was always a concern. Seeing that she had a band aid on the inside of her arm, he assumed that she had some blood taken during her meeting, which didn’t put him at ease.

Taking a deep breath and releasing it she confided, “I, I honestly don’t know. Do you mind taking Charlie to dinner in the cafeteria tonight with the other students? We need to move back into the big house for the time being. I just need to pack a few things and think.”

This was not good, but he didn’t want to say anything in front of Charlie. “Of course, but Kate…”

“I’m fine, or I will be. Just need a moment that’s all.” She kneeled to face Charlie, “You look so much like him.” She kissed her daughter on the cheek and pulled her into an embrace. Letting go as she stood up, she tenderly placed her hand on Logan’s bicep, “Thank you.” He was speechless as he watched her walk away.

“Logan did Mom pop a stitch?” Charlie asked using his own phrase for someone going crazy, as she took his hand to hold.

Forcing a smile on his face he looked down to the child, “It was bound to happen eventually pup. Let’s get some grub.”

~~~

Kate didn’t remember the walk to the cottage. She just knew that she had arrived. Opening the door, she took more care then was needed to softly shut it behind her. With the twisting of the lock she lost her last bit of self-control. Finally, alone, she was able to sink down into a heap on the floor and cry uncontrollably. She didn’t cry when she came to in the HYDRA lab after the explosion, having no idea how she got there. She didn’t make a peep when they delivered her baby via caesarean section without any anesthesia and took the child away as soon as the cord was cut. She didn’t even shed a tear when she was rescued and had remained perfectly silent when her daughter was put into her arms for the first time. She didn’t need to be told she was strong, she knew she was because she had to be, but this, this was her breaking point. She cried for the son that she didn’t even know she had, and the memories he had gifted her with about a loving family in his early years. She cried for the husband, who she knew she had to have loved to have such memories, and the pain he also was now experiencing. She cried for the daughter she had dedicated the last ten years of her life to, who had never known anything but fear and hiding from danger. And lastly, she cried for the woman she used to be, before this damn wipe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After all the talk about them, they are finally here. What do you think of Charlie and Kate?


	20. Chapter Nineteen ~ Jazz Hands

 

Chapter Nineteen

Jazz Hands

“So, how have you been?” Tony asked Steve as an attempt to end the awkward silence that had settled between the eight people sitting at the conference table within the meeting room.  Lila was laying down on her stomach in the corner of the room playing on a Starkpad and cuddling with the newly named Lucky. Nate was happily banging on the glass table top from his position in Pepper’s lap.

“Constantly looking over my shoulder for the past two years, and you?” Steve answered bitterly, challenging Stark to a staring contest in the process. Natasha pulled him out of his apartment in the late afternoon to join the group with promises of strategic discussions on how to take down HYDRA. The first two hours of the meeting was Nick Fury catching everyone up on what had happened. Everything from the Sandbox mission to the meeting with the X-Men.

Vision watched the intense exchange between Tony and Steve and took the opportunity to not only defuse the situation, but ask a question, “Professor Xavier said he could help Wanda?”

Breaking from eye contact with Rogers, Tony paraphrased the proposal from the Professor, “He offered to train her. Honestly it might be the best option to get her out of hiding. Xavier has friends in the government, he seems to think he can persuade the UN into letting him sponsor Wanda here in the States. He has in the past been granted visas for his international students. Not only would Wanda be safe, but legal.”

Sam had become close with Wanda during their time together on the run, seeing her as a little sister. The prospect of her returning to a safe environment and being trained in her abilities sounded too good to be true. “When can she return?”

Tony was quick to put out a disclaimer, “I don’t want to act too quickly. Ross is still all over us, and if he even gets a sniff of what we are trying to do, he may try to shut it down. Remember, he is on the UN committee that oversees the enforcement of the Accords. We have to do this in a certain way that the Secretary doesn’t find out until it’s too late.”

Steve protested at the stall in action, “We can’t just leave her out there unprotected.”

“And it should be her decision to enroll in the school.” Natasha contributed, reminding everyone that Wanda should be the person making the calls in her life.

Vision presented his own resolution to the problem, “Perhaps I could offer a solution. What if I went to her? I could protect her and inform her of the proposal. It would be easier for you to contact me directly than trying to get ahold of her. We can just lay low until arrangements are made.”

“Anyone have a problem with that?” Tony asked looking around the table, seeing that no one saw the need to speak up, he continued.  “Then it’s decided, she’s in Scotland,” He ignored the looks that were sent his way. Did they really think that he wasn’t tracking them for the last two years? “Natasha can provide you with more details. Leave as soon as you can. It won’t take long before Ross figures out she is alone.” Vision immediately stood up and walked over to Natasha who was typing on a tablet.

“Here are the coordinates.” She said handing over the tablet. “I will contact Wanda to let her know to expect you.” Vision accepted the object and held it as if it was his most treasured possession. With the coordinates in hand, he left the room, and moments later, the compound.

“Tony, maybe I should order some pizza for dinner?” Pepper’s eyes drifted to the child in her lap and the one in the corner, “They will be getting hungry soon, if they aren’t already.” It was almost seven o’clock in the evening, and if she was feeling famished, then she was positive the kids were too.

“We can send someone out, either you, Rhodes or myself, but please reduce the number of deliveries to the compound until HYDRA isn’t such a threat.” Director Nick Fury cautioned.

“Speaking of threats to the compound. What is our plan against HYDRA?” Steve asked, reminding everyone of why they were there.

“There isn’t a reason for them to strike here unless they believe it would get them Charlotte. They know she is still at the school.” Tony said as he brought up a projection of the blue prints for the compound, “If they do for some reason decide to attempt an infiltration of the compound, as you can see here, we are pretty much a fortress. A person can’t even come in by way of the air vents without an alarm being triggered. There are too many security protocols that an intruder would have to have to get access.”

“Unless you are able to shrink down to the size of a tic-tac.” Sam said under his breathe.

Satisfied with the security precautions, Steve concluded, “So, the assumption is that they will strike the school?”

The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., disclosed his thinking of when the organization would make a go at the X-Men. “Possibly, the window is tomorrow during the reception. Outsiders have been invited to attend. It would make sense for HYDRA to attempt to sneak someone in.”

Natasha had been listening to the plan, but only had one concern, “But Charlotte will be protected?”

Fury was dumbfounded that Natasha would ask such a senseless question. If the girl’s safety was questionable in her current environment, of course they would have removed her. “I would hope so. The X-Men aren’t stupid, they know that there is a threat against her. It’s not their first rodeo.”

 “So, we stake out the party, and wait for them to make their move?” Sam asked.

Fury revealed the plan, “Everyone will be on comms. Tony will be sure to get video up and working. Obviously, you, Rogers and Natasha can’t go. You will remain outside the party, but you will have eyes and ears on the event.”

Wilson internalize the plan, and voiced his objection, “I don’t like the idea of being so far away if something does go down.”

Not fond of anyone being contradictory with his plan, the Director was fast to shoot back, “And I don’t like the idea of having to negotiate your release from the Raft when Ross finds your fugitive asses.”

Tony got the plan, go to the party and wait for an attack. There was a certain sense of simplicity with it, but he was already over the whole thing. He was focused on what he thought as a more immediate issue.  “Great, so we have a plan. We now can sit here and conduct small talk, while Clint and Cooper bond upstairs over a nervous breakdown?” Looking up he declared, “I should just go up there.”

Natasha had it with Tony’s new-found feeling of entitlement towards the Barton family. “You think being a sperm donor thirty plus years ago gives you the right to barge in on Clint and Cooper and ask about their feelings?”

Pepper was shocked at the outburst, “Natasha! There are children around.”

Natasha looked behind her to see that Lila was still engrossed in whatever she was watching on the Starkpad. “Shit, sorry.”

Steve was the next one to call Nat out, “Natasha! Language.”

Tony jumped a bit when he heard Clint speak suddenly from behind him, “Nat corrupting the children again?”

~~~

Logan and Charlie had finished dinner and were just about to start down the dirt road that would take them to what was called the ‘Carbonell Cottage’. When Kate and Charlie came to live at the school, the last name Bishop was too high profile for Kate or her daughter to use. Professor Xavier had the foresight to know that Charlie would eventually need a birth certificate and social security number, for when she was able to go out into the world. When presented with the dilemma, Kate decided to go by her biological paternal grandmother’s last name, Carbonell. The reason was that no one would be looking for her under that name and having met Maria Stark a few times growing up, the woman had never been anything but loving and kind to her. Legally, they were Katherine Elizabeth Carbonell and Charlotte Henrietta Carbonell of San Diego, California.

A voice called from behind the pair, “Hey you guys, wait up.” Stopping to see who was calling them, they saw Ororo Munroe, who preferred to be called Storm, and Scott Summers.

Greeting them as they caught up to where Charlie and Logan were waiting, Logan said, “Storm, Scott, what are you doing out this way?”

Catching her breath from the sprint, she got out, “Probably the same as you. The Professor filled us in.”

Logan was not enjoying one bit of being out of the loop. “Well, I would like it if someone would help me out with it.”

The look Storm gave him was a troubling one, she quickly morphed into a smile and stated to the child, “Charlie, why don’t you go with Scott? I think since you have been so good lately…”

Placing a hand up in warning, Logan alerted, “Precede with caution there Storm, you obviously didn’t hear about gym class today.”

Looking puzzled at the statement, Storm abandoned the method she was using, “Well, anyways, why don’t you sleep in the girls’ dorm tonight? I’ll tell your mom and get you some clothes and your toothbrush.”

“Really?” She looked around to each adult, eyeing them with suspicion, “What’s the catch?”

Scott scolded the child, “Charlie be nice.” Inside, he was impressed. Any other child would take the prize of staying the night with her friends at face value. Charlie was raised to always be on guard and to analyze any offer that sounded too good to be true.

“It’s fine.” Storm told Scott as she readdressed the child, “You’re smart, so I’m not going to lie to you. There are some people who are not allowed at the school trying to get in. Until we get rid of them, you and your mom are going to move into the school. Tomorrow you guys will have connected rooms, but for tonight you can sleep with your friends, alright?”

Still not believing that she was really going to be able to attend, for lack of a better word, a sleepover, Charlie decided to just go along with it, “Cool.”

Storm was up to date on everything that was going on and the threat hidden behind the walls of the campus, “Charlotte, look at me, this is serious. Do you remember the secret words that someone will say to you if we send them to get you?” The child nodded. “Good, if a stranger comes up to you and says that your mom or us sent them to get you, make them say the secret words, if they can’t, don’t go with them no matter what they say.”

Rolling her eyes for being told the same thing every day for ten years, Charlie replied with the response that had been drilled into her, “Yes ma’am.”

Happy with Charlie’s answer, Storm dismissed the child, “Good girl, now you go with Scott. I’ll be along soon with your pajamas.”

Scott put out his hand for Charlie to take. Once he had her hand secured in his own, he directed her back to the school. Once they were out of ear shot, Logan demanded, “Can someone please fill me the hell in?”

Making sure the child was far enough away, she informed Logan, “They found Charlie’s father.”

Logan made a sound that was a mix between a laugh and a cough, whatever it was supposed to be got stuck in his throat. “Was he missing?”

Storm knew to expect a response like that. Logan had been involved since Charlie was a baby. A little jealousy was anticipated from the Wolverine. “Come on Logan, that’s not fair. We don’t know the guy. We can’t make assumptions about his absence from Charlie’s life. Especially since we now know the reason for it.”

“What’s his reason, went out for smokes and got lost on the way home?” Logan predicted mockingly.

Any other time, Storm would have called him out for his attitude, but understood he was acting out of protectiveness for Kate and Charlie.  “He had his mind wiped, just like Kate did.”

Kicking a rock and watching as if flew across the road and fell into a bush, he observed, “How convenient. And all of a sudden he remembers that he had a child?” 

“It wasn’t as easy as that.” Storm defended as she gestured up the road, “I can fill you in as we walk, Professor asked for me to check in on Kate and help with the move to the house.”

Walking beside her as they saw the cottage come into view, he asked, “So, what does this ‘dad of the year’ want?”

Keeping her eyes on the road while she walked, Storm filled Logan in on what Professor Xavier told her. “Again, not fair. He had no control over it. He is genuinely interested in reconnecting with Kate. He will be here tomorrow for the party, along with a few other members of the Avengers. Kate knows all about it.”

Doing his best ‘jazz hands’ Logan proclaimed loudly, “Yay, the Avengers, can’t wait.”

“Are you ok with this?” She was serious now, she needed to know the answer before they saw Kate. Storm needed to know Logan’s view on this matter.

Shaking his head, “I’m not ‘ok’ with any part of this. But if Kate gave it her seal of approval who am I to disagree.”

Stopping abruptly, she turned to him, “Do you think I’m blind and stupid,”

Logan had taken a step or two before he realized Storm had stopped behind him. “Never thought you were blind. What’s your point?”

Filling the space between them, Storm decided to put everything out there, she wasn’t going to ignore what had been going on any longer. “Nice, my point is that I have seen you walking down this road in the morning, going towards the school.” She placed a heavy emphasis on the word ‘towards’ to make her meaning clear. “The looks you and Kate share across a room. Kate and Charlie aren’t going to be the only people affected by the coming changes.”

Logan placed his hand behind his neck and rubbed it, looking around him, anywhere but at Storm, “It’s not what you think, we were never serious.”

Smiling at his embarrassment of being called out, Storm probed, “So, what was it, friends with benefits?”

Putting his hand back at his side he turned to continue the walk, “That is exactly what it was.” Sensing that Storm wasn’t going to let the topic drop, he brought the attention of the conversation back to the Avengers, “Which one?”

Catching up to him, Storm was confused by the question, “Which one what?”

Annoyed that he had to clarify his request, “Which Avenger did the deed? Bet you it was the black spider.”

Laughing at his guess of who fathered Charlotte, Storm replied, “No, and it’s the Black Widow, not to mention that she’s a woman.”

Raising an eyebrow at the additional information, Logan stated, “Really? And just like that I became more interested in the Avengers. Seriously, was it that rich asshole, the Ironman?”

“Again, no, but he is Kate’s father, Tony Stark.” Feeling Logan’s eyes on her, she didn’t look at him and continued, “I know, the whole thing is crazy. The man who ‘did the deed’ as you so elegantly put it, was Hawkeye, Clint Barton. And before you start with jokes about arrows hitting their targets, they were married, actually, I guess they still are.”

“Married?” He was unable to conceal the shock in his voice.

“Yup, and just so you know because it probably will come up once we get to the cottage, there is another kid.”

Now it was his turn to stop, “You’re shitting me.”

Taking a deep breath, Storm disclosed sadly, “I’m afraid not, a boy. He is a teenager. The Professor and Hank saw him today.”

Logan looked to the house and quickly summarized the events that had led them there, “So, they told Kate about her forgotten husband and son and let her go off alone?”

Not seeing the issue, Storm justify the action, “She told them she needed some time. I don’t blame her, it was a lot to get hit with all at once.” Seeing Logan take off, “Why are you running?”

“Trust me.” He yelled over his shoulder. Storm was right behind him. Arriving at the entrance to the cottage in record time, Logan fished a spare key out of his pocket. Ignoring the raised eyebrow from Storm, he tried the door. “Something is against it. Get medical here now.” He ordered as he gently applied weight to the door, forcing it open.

Storm pulled out her cellphone, “Hank, we need you at Kate’s.” Listening to his response, “We don’t know, just get here please. Logan is getting in now.” Disconnecting the call, she told Logan, “He’s on his way. It’s not locked, what is against it?”

“My guess, her.” Logan reported as he gently pushed the door open, moving whatever was behind along with it. He did it slowly because if his hunch was correct, he didn’t want to hurt Kate. Finally, when there seemed to be enough room for Storm to fit through, Logan ushered her inside.

Storm got half of her body through the entrance when she saw that Logan was correct. “It’s her, she’s out.”

Now that someone was inside with her, Logan had stopped trying to open the door. He would wait until Storm moved Kate. “She’s out? Like out of the way of the door, or like passed out.”

A moment later, Storm’s voice came through the door, “Both, come on in,”

Opening the door all the way, Logan got his first glimpse of Kate. Storm had Kate laying down on the floor, holding her head in her lap. Storm was gently patting Kate’s cheek, coaxing her awake. He was about to check her pulse when Logan saw Kate’s eyelids flicker. “She’s coming to. Kate? Kate, come on wake up.”

After nothing short of an eternity to Logan, Kate opened her eyes. “Hey, there you are. You’re alright. Just stay there. Hank’s coming.” Logan placed both hands on the sides of her head and with his thumbs gently pushed down the bottom lid of her eyes, checking for any signs of injury. Suddenly, the natural light he was using to check Kate was blocked. Looking up towards the door, he saw that Hank McCoy was standing in the entryway. 

Coming inside to kneel beside Kate, Hank opened his medical bag taking out a blood pressure kit. “Katherine” he said in a mocking paternal way, “haven’t we had this conversation before, not passing out when there isn’t anyone around.”

“Was that before or after the conversation about not letting her wander off by herself after receiving life altering news?” Logan accused at the doctor.

Placing the blood pressure cuff on Kate and starting the monitor, Hank looked to Logan, “Every indication showed that she was fine after the meeting.” Giving his attention to the patient, Hank questioned, “Kate do you remember what happened?”

Kate attempted to get up, Logan and Hank without any communication between the two, each took one of her shoulders, lightly pressing it back down. Understanding their meaning to stay down, Kate recalled the earlier event, “I couldn’t breathe, I must have passed out.”

Alarmed looks were exchanged all around. Quickly Hank pulled an oxygen monitoring device out of his bag and put it on her index finger. The device scanned and beeped as it displayed the results. “It’s not an oxygen problem, you’re reading a hundred percent.” Hank examined her by doing the technique that Logan had started. Looking into her eyes, he noticed they were red. The picture became clear then, “Kate, how are you doing? I mean really doing?”

Searching for his meaning Kate stated, “I’m fine. I just passed out that’s all.”

Hank started to gather his equipment back into his bag. Once everything was back he looked directly at her, “Kate, it is me, Logan and Storm.” Kate didn’t even realize that her head was in Storm’s lap until Hank told her that Storm was there. “We’re friends. We know you, you’re as tough as they come. There isn’t a person I know who would have been able to experience half of what you have and not lose it by now. So, when my friend passes out because she says she was unable to breathe and has red eyes, I tend to suspect that she had been crying.” Kate opened her mouth to dispute the claim when Hank put his hand up to stop her, “and if that same friend decides to tell me I am mistaken, then I would not have any other option then to admit her in the infirmary until I come up with another reason, or she comes clean.”

Looking away, Kate had no choice but to admit, “Fine, when you put it like that, I may have been,” swallowing what she thought was her last bit of dignity for admitting to such a thing, “crying.”

Hank paused, knowing what it took for her to admit to something she perceived as a weakness. “That a girl. Now when you are ready, you can slowly try to sit up. I don’t want you standing just yet. Give your head a chance to adjust.”

“That’s it?” Logan asked in disbelief of the recommended medical treatment.

Standing up himself Hank confirmed, “That’s it. I suspect that she had a panic attack. Kate started to cry, it probably got a bit uncontrollable,” looking to Kate for validation, “she hyperventilated, and passed out.”

Storm was next to question the diagnosis, “Will she be alright?”

“It’s a panic attack, nothing serious. It isn’t anything that a mild sedative and good night’s sleep won’t cure.”  He looked to Kate who was now sitting up against the wall by the entrance. “Sleep, that is the best medicine for you. I will get you a light sleeping aide to take the edge off. I’m sure your mind is going a million miles a minute right now; the medicine will slow it down enough for you to fall asleep.”

Kate produced a small smile, “Thank you Hank.”

Speaking to both Storm and Logan, Hank asked, “Can you stay with her and get her to her room at the school. The medicine will be waiting on the night stand. I have a phone call to make.” Logan and Storm nodded, “Thank you, and with that my work here is done. Everyone, please have a good evening.”

Once Hank left, Kate held out her arms to be assisted up, Logan without comment helped and kept his hands on her until she was stable enough to be on her own. Suddenly remembering that her daughter should be with the Wolverine, Kate asked, “Where’s Charlie?”

“Charlie is already in the dorms for the night.” Seeing Kate’s reaction to that Storm clarified, “She’s suspicious, but went willingly. It’s probably best to leave her there for tomorrow night as well since we will all be at the party.” Then Storm added on a lighter note, “If she is in the dorm, then we can have some fun getting ready for the party beforehand.”

As much as Logan loved to hear about spa days, he felt the need to point out, “Yeah, about Charlie staying in the dorms, she knows something is up. No one, I don’t care what school you go to can electrocute their classmates and receive a sleepover as a punishment. Might as well just tell her it’s about a HYDRA threat rather than her thinking that she got one over on us.”

Sighing at the statement, Kate agreed with Logan’s logic, “Well, she needs to be told a few things.”

~~~

All eyes were on the archer as he stood in the doorway. He had sequestered himself to his apartment for almost six hours. Clint had used that time to contemplate what Xavier had shown him. He studied every aspect of the memories, laughing at some, and was silent at others. Finally, when it became too much, he slept, but the memories came in dream form. There was no escaping them now, they were part of him. He had wanted to ask about Kate, seeing if there had been any news. Perhaps share a few things about the woman that no one knew but agreed without hesitation to fight for. However, seeing that his son and daughter were in the area, Clint decided to dance around the elephant in the room. “Have you heard anything from them yet about ‘her’ and how she handled the news?”

Tony shook his head, “Nope, everyone has been unbearably quiet so far.” Clint understood the meaning; the meeting had ended around noon. Clint and Xavier didn’t finish their session until closer to one o’clock. Tony wanted to know what Xavier showed him, and he had promised to talk to him about it. Now just wasn’t a good time. He hadn’t been around Lila and Nate since this morning, and he didn’t want them to feel neglected. He walked into the meeting room and took the empty seat at the end of the table, close to where Lila was laying down. Nate, seeing his father, attempted to climb up on the table to get to him. Pepper stood up and brought Nate to Clint. “Thank you, hey buddy. Have you been a good boy?”

“They have both been perfect angels Clint.” Pepper informed him.

Looking to Lila and back to Pepper, Clint questioned, “Really? Guess the novelty of being here is still going strong, give it some time. Just wait until they get hungry, then you will see what’s hiding behind the masks of the ‘angels’.”

Rhodey took that as his cue that there was something that he was able to help with, “I’m making a pizza run. Any preferences? What does Cooper like?”

Hearing the mention of pizza, Lila got up and went to the table, “Cooper likes food.” She informed Rhodey as she tried to sit in Clint’s lap along with Nate.

Shifting Nathaniel to one knee to allow Lila access to the other, Clint guessed, “I think Cooper is down for the night, but I’ll take some pizza up in case he wakes. Thank you for doing that.”

“Not a problem at all. Here to help.” Rhodes said as he moved over by Tony, who took the signal and produced a credit card. “I’ll just get a little bit of everything, any special requests, just text me.”

Seeing Rhodey leave reminded Lila of an important development that had occurred earlier, “Dad, Rhodey got Lucky a dog bed, but I think he wants to stay with us in our bed for a little while longer.”

Clint wasn’t a therapist by any means but even he was able to interpret Lila’s comment to be a request for her to stay in his bed again that night. “That’s great Lila, what’s one more in the bed?” The dog was in the bed last night, so it really wasn’t ‘one more’, but then again, so was Cooper. Cooper had slowly over the course a day claimed the second bedroom as his own. Clint didn’t see a good reason to force the boy to share, especially since his siblings weren’t on board with the idea yet either.  Perhaps tonight he would be able to get some sleep.

Figuring out the cramped conditions that Casa de’ Hawkeye must be, Tony enlightened Clint to what he had been working on since the meeting had ended. It was one of the many things he had been working on, the other vital item was a decryption program to unlock the wipe. It wasn’t even close to being ready to go, but it looked like it could be a success. “Yeah, about that. You need more room. Two bedrooms won’t cut it. I’m thinking about the space one floor up that isn’t being used. There are two empty apartments right on top of yours. We can do as you did at the Brooklyn apartment, make it one big one.  My suggestion would be to do that and extend it to your current apartment so that it becomes two floors with a bedroom for everyone.  You would just need to live in a work zone for at the most a week.”

Clint knew he had Nate and Lila with him. Nate wasn’t that big of a deal, but Lila would be able to comprehend the conversation. Everyone was doing this for him and his family. He couldn’t put a limit of not speaking about it in front of the kids, and the alternative of banishing the children to another location while the adults talked wasn’t fair either. Lila would have to be told everything before the gathering tomorrow, but until then, he could speak in generalizations, “Tony, I don’t know if that would work. I haven’t decided yet what we are going to do about accommodations.” God, he hoped Tony was picking up the hint he was laying down, “I don’t see myself or anyone else wanting to go back. But I don’t think the compound is the answer.”

Tony did comprehend what Clint was attempting to do and respected it. “Let me do the work anyways, so you have the compound arrangements as a backup plan. That way you have accommodations here to visit the school anytime you want.”

Being raised by a spy, Lila was fast to pick up on the meaning of what the men were talking about, “We’re moving?”

Tony honestly didn’t see the girl move from the corner to her father’s lap. Her question caught him off guard. “Shit, how long have you been there?”

Giving Tony a look for cursing in front of his daughter, to which Tony just rolled his eyes. Clint looked out to everyone sitting at the table, their eyes screamed pity for the predicament he and his family were in. Deciding on when and how he would tell her, Clint suggested, “Lila, sweetheart, why don’t you and I go for a long walk tomorrow after breakfast? Then we can talk about our ‘vacation’.”

Lila aimed her sights on Nate and up to her father, “Just you and me?”

With a fake smile Clint promised, “Just us.”

The tender father and daughter moment was disturbed by the sound of Tony’s cell phone ringing, pulling it out of his pocket, he checked the caller ID, “It’s the blue doctor.” Stark told the group as he answered the phone.

Sam leaned towards Natasha, “psychologist?” He then saw Nick Fury watching him, understanding that the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. was willing him with his mind to shut up.

Pepper knew Clint would want to be an active participant in the phone call, so she got up again to take Nathaniel back and guided Lila off her father’s lap, “Come on, I’m sure Lucky needs to be walked and fed.”

Lila raised a few objections, but after a stern look from Clint, complied with Pepper’s request. As she slid off his lap, Clint assured her, “Lila just for a minute while Tony is on the phone, then Colonel Rhodes will be back with dinner and we all can sit and eat together.”

Once Pepper shut the glass door behind her, Tony greeted, “Hello?”

_“Hello Tony, Doctor Hank McCoy here. I told you I would be in contact after I met with Kate.”_

Tony put a hand over the mouthpiece and informed the group, “She knows.” Uncovering the piece, he asked, “How did she take it?”

_“Better than I expected, had a little hiccup just now, but I think she should be fine.”_

Again, covering the mouth piece, Tony relayed the comment, “Had a bit of a hiccup, but she should be, wait a minute.”  Uncovering the phone again, Tony asked in alarm, “What do you mean she should be fine?”

“Damn it Tony, just put it on speaker!” Clint demanded, his voice thick with worry over what Tony just said.

“Hey doc, can I put you on speaker?”

_“Of course, you may.”_

Tony pressed a button on the phone and placed it on the table. “Hank, you are now on the phone with myself, Clint, Nick, Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, and Steve Rogers, everyone Doctor Henry McCoy.”

_“A pleasure I’m sure. As I was telling Tony, Kate had a slight medical situation after hearing the information. It was dealt with, and I see no reason to believe it will affect her overall health.”_

Clint stood up to move closer to the phone’s speaker, “Dr. McCoy, it’s Clint, what is a light medical situation? What exactly happened?”

_“About thirty minutes ago, Kate was discovered unconscious in her home._ ” Concerned glances were shared all around the table. “ _It was a panic attack. She hyperventilated and passed out. Giving the nature of what she learned today, it isn’t a surprise that this happened.”_

All eyes in the conference room turned to Tony at the mention of Kate suffering a panic attack. Tony took the hint and inquired, “Are panic attacks hereditary?”

_“I wouldn’t say that an attack itself is hereditary, but panic disorders and the symptoms associated with the condition are. Is that a contributing factor you, Mr. Stark, are recommending me to look at?”_

“Yeah, I suffer from them myself. Never passed out but have gotten pretty damn close. You said that you doubt this will affect the gamma poisoning? How is that? She had to have been stressed when it occurred.”

_“But she passed out. That slowed down the heart rate considerably. When I got to her, all vitals were normal. I would assume the whole incident was short.  I am going to give her a sleeping aide to help tonight, hopefully a good night’s sleep is all she needs. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me, I am going to go see to the sleeping medication now. Have a good night and see you all tomorrow.”_

Without giving anyone an opportunity to respond, Dr. McCoy severed the call. Everyone returned to their place at the table. “Well, she now knows, and we are still invited to the event tomorrow. All and all? I’m going to take that as a good sign.” Tony offered trying in vain to bring some levity to the situation.

Natasha didn’t see where Tony’s optimism was coming from, “Tony, she stopped breathing and passed out.”

“It was a panic attack, nothing more. I think Tony is right.” Now everyone was staring at Clint for his sudden support of the Ironman. “She didn’t ask that we not attend. If she did, I doubt Hank would have even mentioned the party tomorrow.”

Tony asked Clint, “In any of the memories you were given, did she ever have a panic attack before?”

Shaking his head, Clint said, “She didn’t, at least not in front of Cooper. If she did with me or in private, I don’t know. She was always,” He paused, searching for the right words to explain her personality around their son, “energetic and loving.  Hell, only one memory I got had her sad or afraid in it.” The people around the table all noticed that his voice got quieter when he revealed that particular memory.  

Clint saw that he was the center of attention and quickly put the assumption to rest, “it wasn’t bad.” He swore to the group, then added, “In fact, it was one of the best memories I was given.”

Looks were exchanged all around until Sam prompted, “Feel like sharing?” Tony thought he may go over the table and kiss Sam for his suggestion.

Natasha defended her best friend, “Damn Sam, don’t push him.”

Then of all the people in the room, the one who Clint would have thought would be the most considerate regarding a person’s intimate family moments, Steve Rogers piped in, “Maybe if you told us your best memory of Kate, it would help us to learn about her. Who knows, it may even help you Clint to talk about it.” Clint scoffed at the notion of ‘story time’, he had come to the room with the idea of sharing things about Kate. Not to tell of the exact remembrances, of course, those were sacred.  Then he saw it, the faces of his friends watching him, silently willing him to disclose. Maybe there was something to it if Rogers was recommending it.

Preparing himself mentally, Clint opened his mouth, “Alright, it happened I would guess almost eleven years ago…”

~~~

_“Hey Kate, you’re here early.” At the mention of his mother’s name by Ms. Simone, Cooper looked up from where he was playing. His mommy was here, which meant that he was going to go home.  Running over to her with his arms opened wide, she complied and picked him up._

_With a smile on her face and placing a kiss on each of his cheeks Kate greeted, “Hello my love. Were you a good boy for Ms. Simone today?” Cooper didn’t respond, he understood the question, just didn’t want to answer it._

_Ms. Simone didn’t miss a beat with telling on him, “We have a new fascination with putting things in the toilet. But it’s common at this age. We put them on the pot so often to train them to use it, it becomes a toy.”_

_“Well, we will just need to watch out for that. Right buddy?” Mommy wasn’t mad, she was smiling at him._

_Cooper looked away from his mom to watch as Simone walked around the living room, collecting his toys and packed them away in his bag. With the last item safely tucked away, she zipped up the bag and asked, “Any reason you are doing bank hours today? We weren’t expecting you for a few more hours.”_

_Bouncing Cooper on her hip, Kate looked at him and answered, “Yeah, well something came up. I’ll be doing nine to five for the foreseeable future.”_

_“I hope everything is alright, but happy the Cooper will get some sort of routine.” Simone said as she handed Kate the bag._

_Looking away from him, Kate looked at Ms. Simone, “Alright may not be the best word for the situation. On that note, if you hear shouting from our place later, don’t worry about it, it’s just Clint having a meltdown.”_

_Cooper watched as Simone’s face changed in understanding and she smiled at his mommy, “Oh, I get it. Do you want me to keep Cooper for the night?”_

_Cooper tightened his grip around his mom’s neck, “No, I go home,” he requested._

_Kate turned her attention away from Simone for a second to reassure her son, “We’re going home.” Then returned to her friend, “We will be ok, thank you for the offer. Have a good night Simone and we will see you in the morning.”_

_“Good night Kate, night Cooper.” Simone said as she followed them to the door and opened it for Kate._

_Hearing Ms. Simone’s door shut and lock behind them Cooper held onto his mom as they walked across the hallway to their apartment. Opening the door, she placed Cooper down. He didn’t want to be put down, so he attempted climbing Mount Saint Mama. “Ok, come on back up.” She said understanding what he wanted, his mommy always knew what he wanted. “Ms. Simone said you were playing in the toilet water, so I think a bath is the first order of business tonight,”_

_Bringing him into the bathroom, she started to run the water and undress him. Bath time was always fun when mommy or daddy did it, not so much when Ms. Simone did. She had placed him in the water and started to wash his hair when she started, “Cooper, we need to have a talk.” Oh no, was this about the toilet? Maybe mommy was mad after all. “Things are going to change around here.” The last time she said that, he had to start using the ‘big boy potty’ and that has not been good for anyone, just ask Simone’s earrings. “Mommy is going to have a baby. You’re going to be a big brother. Isn’t that exciting?”_

_Cooper just stared at Kate, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that is the exact reaction your daddy is going to have. Mommy wanted to wait a bit before telling you guys, but work caught me. So, your daddy has probably already figured out by now that I am on desk duty. It may get loud here.”_

_“Baby.” Cooper repeated back. He had no idea what she was talking about._

_She smiled really big, “Yes a baby. What a smart boy. I do love you so much.” She bent into the tub to kiss Cooper on top of his head, “you know that right?”_

_Kate was busy making a tower of bubbles and blowing it away when he heard his daddy from the other room, “Kate? Are you home?”_

_She made a funny face at Cooper as she stuck out her tongue, and he laughed at the sight. Hearing dad yell for mom a second time, she rolled her eyes and pulled Cooper out of the bath, wrapping a towel around him she called back, “Yeah, we are in here. Coming.”_

_Cooper went running out of the bathroom towards his daddy’s voice. Coming around the corner he saw his dad pouring a cup of coffee in the kitchen. He must have heard Cooper coming because he placed the cup down and kneeled to pick up the boy. “There’s my naked man. Did you have fun today with Ms. Simone.”_

_“Earrings bye-bye.” Cooper responded, and only received a questionable look from his father in return._

_“I’m slowly putting together that he flushed Simone’s earrings down the toilet today.” Kate said coming into the kitchen holding the toddler’s pajamas._

_Clint smiled then got a serious look on his face while he shook his head, “Cooper don’t do that.”_

_Taking Cooper from his dad, mommy sat him on the counter and started to put his clothes on, “I’m sure hours after the fact he completely understands what you are telling him.”_

_Picking up his cup again, Clint said, “Well, I don’t know what else to do then. Speaking of hours after the fact. Do you mind telling me why when I check the Darkstone mission profile for tomorrow I saw that Mills had replaced you on the team?”_

_“Don’t mind at all. I’m on desk duty.” Kate told Clint without taking her eyes off her son, keeping a smile plastered on her face that even Cooper knew was fake. Now that he had clothes on, she put him back on the floor, and he went straight for his daddy again._

_Gulping down his coffee, Clint bent down to pick Cooper up again, “Desk duty? What did you do?”_

_Now Kate’s smile was gone. Cooper didn’t know why his mommy wasn’t happy anymore. “What did I do? More like what did you do?”_

_Now he could see that his daddy wasn’t happy either. “Excuse me? Care to explain that?”_

_Cooper started to push against his dad. There was something in the way Clint sounded and looked that made Cooper want to get away from him. He was scared and about to cry. He didn’t like what was happening. Then it came to him, how he got mommy to smile in the bath, “Baby.”_

_Clint and Kate both looked at Cooper. He was happy to see that his mom had a little smile again, not like the one last time he said it, but now daddy looked different too. Clint slowly turned his head to Kate, “Kate?”_

_Pointing at Cooper, she answered, “You heard your boy, we’re having a baby. I’m on desk duty.”_

_Clint put Cooper down again. With his arms now free, he was able to grab each of Kate’s hands. “Kate, a baby?” he asked, and Cooper watched as his Mommy nodded. “A baby, we’re having a baby!” Clint exclaimed. Both once again looked to Cooper as he let out a howling sound that quickly became a crying fit. Clint released Kate and kneeled before his boy. “Hey bud, we didn’t forget about you.” The tears dried up instantaneously._

_Kate came behind Clint and put her hand on his back causing him to look over at her, “So, we are ok with this?”_

_Clint was still looking at Cooper making sure he wasn’t going to cry again, “Of course, we are” Then he looked to Kate.” Why, did you expect me not to be happy about another kid?”_

_She eyed Cooper as she recalled, “Well, when you found out about Cooper….”_

_Clint sat down on the floor next to where Cooper was standing. Seeing him do it, Kate did the same thing. “That’s not fair,” Clint countered, then conceded, “but I will admit it wasn’t my finest moment, I would like to point out in my defense, that you didn’t tell me about Cooper, Fury did, and in front of a lot of people.” Cooper observed that as his dad finished talking he turned and put a hand on his mommy’s tummy for some reason, then started again, “We got this. Look at Cooper, he is almost three and still breathing. We got this.”_

_With the feeling of Clint’s hand on her still flat belly, Kate started to cry, Cooper wanted to go to her, mommies shouldn’t cry, but watched as his dad got to her first. “Hey, its ok. What, were you afraid I was going to be mad or something?”_

_Kate wrapped her arms around Clint’s neck and put her face into his chest and cried. Why was mommy sad Cooper wondered and watched as his Daddy rubbed his hand up and down her back like he did when Cooper cried. So, lacking any other course of action, Cooper did what he always did when he was confused or scared, he cried. Clint saw him and pulled him in with the other hand and rubbed his back too. “Don’t like when mommy cries, well neither do I Coop.”_

_Cooper was trying to put himself between his mom and dad, so he could be with both. Kate leaned back so he could achieve his goal. She wiped away her tears with her hand, but Clint grabbed it before she could, “Hey Kate, I’m sorry that I gave you the impression that I wouldn’t be happy about this baby, but I am.”_

_Kate confessed in a tone that Cooper didn’t understand, “You have made it clear to anyone who will listen that Cooper wasn’t planned. You never wanted this.”_

_Kissing Kate’s hand that he was still holding as he pulled it to his chest Clint corrected, “I never knew I wanted this. Our little life and family, it’s now the only thing I want. The only thing I’m worried about is space. We need more of it.”_

_Kate laughed at that which made Cooper feel better. “Yeah, we ran out of room when it was just your bachelor pad.”_

_Clint kissed the top of Cooper’s head then Kate’s. “Well, no one is next door. We could tear down a wall and add a few more bedrooms and another bathroom. I always wanted to build something.”_

_~~~_

At the completion of the story, Clint thought if nothing else, he now had a better understanding of his son’s mind. The kid was trouble from the beginning. Not only did Xavier give him memories of his wife, but also his son, and the treasured memory of being told about Charlie’s existence.  Reliving the moments through Cooper’s eyes, gave Clint an outsider’s view on how people could perceive him. He didn’t like the fact that his son was sad because his mom cried, or that his dad’s body language stirred fear in the child. That just hit to close to home and was everything Clint tried not to be as a father and husband. He would have to be more mindful of what he did around Nathanial. Clint broke away and surveyed the room. Steve was looking down with a hint of a smile. Natasha was lost in her own thoughts staring at the wall. Sam and Nick still had their attention on Clint with blank expressions. Tony was also watching Clint, but the look on his face was haunted.

“Tony?” Clint asked after observing the painful appearance on the man’s face.

Being pulled back by Clint’s voice, Tony wondered what kind of marriage and relationship Kate and Clint had that she would have been afraid to tell him about a pregnancy. He suddenly felt the need to protect his daughter, “Why was she scared to tell you about Charlie?”

“Honestly don’t know. I did something that gave her that impression.” Knowing that Tony wasn’t happy with his answer, Clint acknowledged, “I don’t like it either.”

Nick cut in with his own takeaway from the story, “I’m more curious as to the reason why I had to tell Barton about Cooper.”

At that moment, Rhodes tapped on the door holding up a plate with pizza on it, indicating that dinner was being served. Thankful for the distraction, Natasha, Nick, Tony, and Sam got up and walked out, leaving Steve and Clint alone at the conference table.

Steve took the quiet moment to ask Clint, “How are you really doing? None of this can be easy.”

Clint looked to Steve, debating what he was about to ask. Finally figuring out that Cap would be the best person to answer his question, he went ahead, “Is it possible to miss someone when all you have is a few memories of them?” Sliding his hand through his hair in frustration he quickly added, “Hell, and the memories aren’t even your own?”

Steve nodded his understanding of the question. He knew exactly what Clint was referring to, he had been there himself in a strange sort of way. “Speaking as an expert in the subject of only having the memories of loved ones to cherish. It doesn’t matter why or how you miss someone. You miss a person because they were a part of the important moments of your life. You worked with Kate at S.H.I.E.L.D., married her, and had two children together. I think it is a safe assumption to make that the most important moments of your adult life had Kate at your side. I would be even more concerned for you if you told me that you didn’t miss her.”


	21. Chapter Twenty ~ Spoiled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can't believe it's chapter twenty. Hope you all enjoy it. As always, please let me know what you think. Your comments and kudos keep me going!

 

Chapter Twenty

Spoiled

“Pepper, I appreciate everything you are doing, but I don’t want them to get spoiled. Back home, when you could reach the cabinet to get a bowl, you were old enough to make your own breakfast. Cereal is fine for them, it was only on weekends that we went all out on breakfast.” Clint said as he bounced Nate in his lap and watched as Lila filled her plate at the buffet laid out on the counter.

Handing Nathaniel a piece of bacon, which he gleefully accepted, Pepper responded, “Is it spoiling to make sure that they have a good meal? Come on Clint, if I am going to be grandma, then let me act like it.”

Clint hadn’t thought about that, Tony was Kate’s father and engaged to Pepper. In a few months’ time, Pepper would in fact be Cooper and Charlie’s step grandmother. The issue before them now was that Clint was a package deal, all or nothing. He had four children, only two of which were related to Kate and Tony. Would either of them accept the entire Barton family? Lila was in a unique situation, for lack of a better word, she was adopted. Perhaps with time, Kate would see Lila as another innocent victim in this horrible wipe and accept her as her own. Nathanial was a different story altogether, he was biologically Clint and Laura’s. A means to a deeper cover.  Could Kate love and care for Laura’s son? Tony, still unsure of his place in Kate’s life would probably go with whatever she decided, but he did offer to and had already this morning, started on the renovations to expand their living quarters. Would Tony do that if he wasn’t ready to accept all of the children into his family?

It was almost as if Clint had said everything he was thinking out loud by Pepper’s offer, “I don’t know if that would help your ‘walk’ with Lila.” Noting the puzzled look Clint flashed her she expanded, “Mentioning that I would become her grandmother. It may prove to her that nothing has changed, she still has all of us, some even closer than before. She loves Tony, now he won’t be Uncle Tony, but grandpapa. I won’t be Ms. Pepper, but, I don’t know what they would call me. How about we let them decide?”

“Things have changed Pepper, they won’t have Laura.” Clint reminded her in a low whisper. “I have to go out and tell my little girl that her mom isn’t coming back, and dad already has someone new set up.”

Pepper respected the situation that Clint was in, “That’s not fair to you or Kate. Maybe if you just start by telling her that Kate is Cooper’s mom. Probably be a good idea to mention Charlie as well.  Lila is ten, she has had to see blended families at school before.”

Clint dryly observed, “This isn’t a blended family, this is a chopped and pureed family.”

Reaching out her hand, Pepper placed it on top of Clint’s, “It is what you make it out to be Clint. You just need to be honest. Tell her that her mom did something bad and is gone now. Yes, she will cry, and she will scream, but as long as you show her that she still has her brothers and her dad, she will be alright. It will take a long time, so buckle in, but she will be alright in the end with the proper help and guidance.”

Realizing that he was in over his head, he asked, “What do I tell her about HYDRA?”

“Honestly?” Pepper inquired to which Clint nodded, he wouldn’t have asked if he didn’t want her suggestion on the matter. “You may want to tell her that Laura was part of it, a bad group of people who did some dreadful things. You know she will ask what terrible things her mom did that was so bad she had to leave. You also may want to add that is why Kate and Charlie were gone for so long. That is where I would leave it, I wouldn’t mention Lila’s own connection to the group.” Clint was about to protest, refusing to lie to his daughter, “You’re not lying, you are just omitting things right now, for her benefit. I think we are all in agreement that the kids are going to need some professional help. Let Lila start to go for a few sessions, then meet with the therapist and ask them how to tell her.”

Watching as Lila sat down at the table, he turned to Pepper and in a hushed tone asked, “What if Kate doesn’t want anything to do with them.”

Astounded by the question, Pepper wondered, “Why would you think that?”

Keeping a careful eye on Lila to make sure she didn’t overhear anything, he confided to Pepper, “I don’t know, how does someone react to their husband showing up after ten years with two additional children. Put yourself in her shoes.”

“They aren’t the same size, but I have a pair of shoes just like hers.” Pepper assured him, “Remember Tony? Out of the blue, ‘hey so I have a daughter…’. Been there, and I accept Kate as part of Tony. Just like I accept all the children, and Tony does too, and something tells me that Kate is going to do the same.”

That sure didn’t sound like the Tony Clint knew, “And Tony is really fine with all of this?”

Pepper let go of Clint’s hand and leaned back into her chair, “Yes, he has already told me that he wants them all to think of him as his grandfather. It’s not fair to Lila or Nate to be left out. It’s not their fault this happened to them. We are a family now Clint, all of us.”

“I’m done.” Lila announced from her seat. True to her word, the mountain of food she had piled onto her plate was gone. “Can we go on that walk now.”

Feeling like a prisoner walking to the electric chair, Clint handed Nate over to Pepper. “Yeah, sure, let’s go.”

~~~

Kate called over the courtyard full of children working off their breakfast, “Charlie, come over here please.”

The girl stopped in mid run, she was participating in a makeshift soccer game, “I didn’t do it.”

Throwing her hands in the air in frustration, Kate yelled back, “Didn’t do what? You know, I really don’t have time for this today. Just get over here.” Having a serious discussion by yelling to each other across the yard in front of everyone wasn’t what Kate had planned.

Charlie accepted her fate and walked over to her mom. She has had people watching her all day, she hadn’t had the opportunity to do anything wrong, and not for want of trying. When she got to her mom, she saw Kate wave to Logan who was ‘on guard’ right now and pointed to the secluded bench that was in the corner of the courtyard away from everyone. Logan nodded as he leaned back against the brick wall and pulled out a cigar.

“Charlie, come have a seat with me.” Kate said, and she sat down and patted the space next to her. “We need to talk about something really important.”

Sitting down next to her mom, Charlie knew this was something entirely different then what she anticipated when Kate called her over. “What’s wrong? Is it HYDRA?” There were only so many reasons why she would be so closely watched, and the terrorist organization was never far from her thoughts.

Kate had never been able to get one over on her daughter starting at an early age. “Yes, HYDRA is a problem, but that isn’t what we need to talk about right now. Remember that meeting I had yesterday? What am I saying of course you remember it.”

Watching her friends continue the soccer game without her, Charlie answered, “The one that Logan had to watch me during because I changed the gym balls.”

Kate had forgotten all about that, “That one. Well, I met with Professor Xavier and Doctor McCoy. They wanted to let me know that they found some people. People I use to know or knew of.”

“Before HYDRA hurt us?” Kate really did hate that Charlie used that as a time marker. Everything was ‘before’ and ‘after’ HYDRA.

Taking a different approach Kate rephrased, “Before you were born. They met with four people. One of the people was my old boss, Director Nick Fury, he was here last year and visited us.”

Charlie paused, recalling the details of when the man came and spoke to her and her mom. “The guy with the eye patch, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, former Colonel Nickolas J. Fury.” When Kate didn’t say anything else, Charlie asked, “Who else was at the meeting?”

~~~

“Do you want anything else?” Pepper asked as she watched Cooper clean his plate. The teenager had been missing since early yesterday afternoon, so an appetite was expected. In response to the offer, Cooper return to the layout of food.

Rhodes was refilling his coffee as he did his best British documentarian voice impersonation, “We are witnessing the American teenage boy in his natural habitat – a buffet line.”

Tony looked up from the tablet he was working on, “I don’t remember doing that at his age, but I was an eccentric teenager.”

Natasha couldn’t help herself, “Tony, all of this is happening now because you were an eccentric teenager.”

Avoiding the bait of Natasha’s, Tony countered, “Hey, what I did drunk in the backseat of my car is my own business.”

Coming to her fiancée’s defense Pepper was fast to point out, “And if he wasn’t, we wouldn’t have Cooper with us, now would we?”

Steve was sitting on the couch looking over some research about the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, preparing for the evening’s mission. He was going in and out listening to the exchange taking place behind him in the dining area. Only hearing bits and pieces of the conversation, Steve turned around to face the group and asked, “What does Tony driving around in a car have to do with Cooper?”

Sam was sitting at the table looking over topographic maps of both the compound and the school’s campus with Nick when he went to his friend’s aid. “Procreation Steve. They are talking about sex.” Steve’s face got red and he turned back around to look like he was reading, but Sam decided to take things further by calling over to him, “Tony did the dirty in the backseat of a car with Kate’s mom, and Kate did the deed….”

Tony stopped Sam’s genealogy explanation of the Stark family, “Now that is not funny.”

Nick straighten himself, allowing the stress of being bent over the maps to release. Crossing his arms, he stated his counterview, “Like hell it isn’t. Of all the people in the world for Clint to get with, he got with your daughter. I mean what are the odds of that?” He looked at Sam, “I want to know how he got her in the first place. She’s an attractive lady now, I wish I could remember what she looked like ten years ago. Cause damn.” Nick added with his famous authoritative sarcasm.

“She was beautiful.” Everyone looked to Cooper, who had said the comment in a soft voice as he stared at his reloaded plate. Pepper and Tony traded a concern look. Cooper hadn’t said word one about what Xavier had shown him yesterday. It was the first time Cooper had acknowledged the memories in their presence.

Natasha was seated right next to Cooper, so she took the lead. “Cooper, I have known you for a long time. I hope you know that if there was anything you wanted to talk to me about, you don’t have to ask, just start talking. Do you want to talk about yesterday, and what you saw?”

Cooper took a moment to consider, then nodded his head. He was just about to start talking when he saw Clint walk in with Lila over his shoulder. A shiver ran down his spine as he had a flashback to that night at the farm when she was drugged.  “Dad?”:

Clint looked over to see Cooper’s face. He immediately figured out what was going on in his son’s mind, and went over to him, “It’s alright Cooper, she is just upset.”

Knowing that she was being spoken about, Lila lifted her head and took in the scene before her. Her eyes darted around until she found what she wanted, “Auntie Nat!” she screamed and launched herself into the red head’s arms and away from her father.

Natasha stood up and caught the girl in midair as she drove for her. “Hey honey, I’m here.”

Then the sobs came out, “Dad said…mom isn’t…coming back.” Natasha held the child tighter as an attempt to comfort her. “Mom did something…bad…can’t come back.”

“I know sweetie. It’s sad.” Natasha looked up at Clint. Being partners, she had seen Clint beaten, battered, and bruised. She had seen him tortured and near death, but none of that was remotely close to the pain he looked to be in now. He told her one drunken night after Lila was born about the car accident that killed his parents and left him an orphan. He explained how it was his worst fear to have his children go through the same thing, losing a parent.  It was what drove him to retiring right before Nate was born. Now here he was, Laura was gone, and Clint had to explain why to her children.  Honestly, how much longer would Clint be able to maintain his composure before he broke from this madness? Returning her attention to the child crying in her arms, Natasha noticed that there was dirt and pieces of dried leaves stuck everywhere.

Clint saw Natasha’s inspection and informed her in a very tired voice before being asked, “I don’t want to say that she didn’t handle the news well, but she did unsuccessfully attack a log and fell down a hill.”

Knowing that there were probably a few vital facts missing from the story of Lila’s reaction to the news, Natasha put it in the back of her mind to ask later. “Lila, Lila?” The girl looked up, “You are filthy, let’s go get you in the bath, I want to make sure you didn’t get hurt falling, and there isn’t anything living in your hair.” A bath was the perfect cover to move the girl away from the assembly of concerned people who were watching her. Also, it was for the best to take Lila away from Clint, because right now he was the bad guy to his child, and she needed the space and time process the blow she was just dealt.

Clint appreciated Natasha taking charge of the situation and thanked her as she led his daughter up to the apartment. It was for the best that Lila be taken somewhere more private and having her Auntie Nat to confine in without him hovering. Suddenly feeling every day of his age as he went to the living area and collapsed into one of the recliners. Everyone froze in anticipation of what would happen next. It took about three minutes for Clint to convince himself enough into believing that he was able to move onto the next child’s maternal crisis, “Hey Cooper, how are you doing?”

Tony was taken back; Clint and Cooper were far apart in distance. Clint sitting in the communal area, and Cooper at the dining table. There weren’t any physical barriers between the two areas, but there was a lengthy distance between the two and a lot of people filling in that space. It seemed uncharacteristic of Clint to openly ask his son about his feelings with an audience. Thinking back to earlier when Tony interrupted the father and son talking in private during an emotional moment it occurred to him that perhaps Clint was doing this in public to reduce the chances of him dropping his strong façade again. At this point Tony could only assume the mind games that Clint was playing with himself to be able to continue going.

Cooper got up and washed off his plate and put it on the drying rack. Walking over to his dad he calmly explained, “I was doing good until I learned my mom was conceived one drunken night in the backseat of a car, that and you know, seeing my sister learn her life was also a lie.”

Clint shot a look to Tony then matter-of-factly commented as his son sat down on the couch next to Steve, “Well, it definitely has been a day of discoveries. Where’s your brother?”

Rhodes called from his position between Sam and Nick, “Just put him down upstairs to take a nap after breakfast. FRIDAY is watching him.”

Checking the time Clint saw that it was probably the right move, “Natasha is up there now, so he’ll be ok. Should nap for another hour at least. Cooper, other than your freaky grandfather and traumatized sister, you are handling everything?”

Steve saw that Cooper was struggling with an answer in front of some many people. He tried his best to help the kid out, “Cooper was just telling us that his mom was pretty.”

“I believe he said ‘beautiful’.” Tony clarified from his spot next to Pepper at the table. He was working on an algorithm for his wipe reversal program while Pepper was looking over Stark Industries emails and contacting contractors regarding the Barton apartment improvements. Tony would had preferred to be in his lab, as he would be on any given day. However, he didn’t want to miss a moment in case Cooper spilled the beans on his memories of Kate. There were also tactical discussions that he probably should be involved in going on at the end of the table between Rhodey, Sam and Nick about tonight’s events.

Soberly Clint replied, “Yeah, yeah she was.”

Rhodey chose that moment to have a little fun at Tony’s expense, “Nick says she is still pretty hot.”

“Did he now?” Looking to Nick then back to the boy, Clint offered, “Is there anything else you remembered and wanted to talk about?”

Cooper didn’t need to, he knew if he wanted to talk, his dad would listen. “Not really, she was mostly always happy, laughing and playing with me, you too dad. Our life was good.” Cooper didn’t know that Xavier only gave him the good memories, while Clint was burden with everything. The Professor allowed Cooper to keep the rose color glasses on but removed them for Clint. He received the memories that were created before Cooper could attach meaning to it. Sometimes, like in the recall of learning about Charlie, Clint was a witness to his son’s internal monologue, but others were not like that.  Meaning that while Cooper was able to see and hear the scenes, he was too young to process what was happening. They weren’t always happy and laughing, but it was clear that they loved each other and Cooper.  

If Cooper thought that the return of Kate meant the return of the life he believed they had back then, Clint needed to prepare him for reality. “Life isn’t all tickles, hugs, and piggyback rides Coop.”

Cooper didn’t need to be told that, not after the lessons he had learned in the last few days. His dad did mention something that generated a memory, that he for some reason felt the need to share with the group. They were all asking if he wanted to talk, so he decided to share the memory that his father triggered, “I remember this one time, I heard something one night, so I got up. I went to your room, and saw that mom was trying to give you a piggyback ride.” Cooper laughed at the absurdity of the memory, while everyone’s mouth hung open at the innocent recollection. Obviously, he did not think the whole thing through prior to sharing. He just heard the word ‘piggyback’ and reverted to what his young mind interpreted the moment to be and was clueless to what he had just revealed to the group of friends and family. The teenager continued as if it was the funniest thing in the world, “I remember being so mad that she would give you a ride, but I had to go to bed.” Cooper wasn’t a toddler anymore, and as soon as he saw the reactions he got to his story, he quickly processed the event, “Oh my God, she wasn’t giving you a piggyback ride, was she?”

Clearing his throat, Clint confirmed, “No son, no, she wasn’t.” Then he wondered to himself why Xavier would give his son that memory, perhaps because Cooper didn’t attach the real meaning to it?

An awkward silence hung in the room, nobody wanted to be the one to break it. Finally, Cooper stated, “I may throw up.”

Tony was looking through the glass table to his shoes underneath lacking anything else to do. After that story he was positive that he would not be able to focus on his research and work, the visual plaguing his mind prohibited it. All he could do was to agree with his grandson, “Right behind you.”

Clint caught Rhodey and Nick smirking, Sam had his back to him, so all he could see was Wilson’s shoulders slightly moving. Clint knew that the reason Sam was turned away was so that no one could see him laughing.

“Speaking of traumatizing the children.” Pepper slowly stated, giving everyone time to collect themselves from Cooper’s recall of catching his parents having sex, “Clint, Maria Hill just sent me a list of therapists that specialize in this type of thing, who work with children. S.H.I.E.L.D has contracts with them, so they have been vetted.”

Tony leaned over to see the email on Pepper’s tablet, “Who specializes in counseling children who have been lied to, kidnapped, and poisoned?”

Still staring at the maps, Nick answered, “You would be surprised the cases S.H.I.E.L.D has been involved in.”

Ignoring both Tony and Nick, Pepper continued, “Clint, would you like me to pursue this? They all do house calls.”

“I have to see a shrink?” Cooper shrieked

“Ya think?” Clint sarcastically shot back at his son’s question. “Thank you Pepper, if you don’t mind could you please forward that to me? I will look over it before I leave tonight.”

Rhodes brought the topic back to the mission, “We need to go over the plan before you guys leave.”

Tony wasn’t worried, “There is a lot that has to happen before the party, we will get it all done.”

“Can I go?” Cooper asked with the puppy-dog eyes that had never worked with Clint.

“Listen Coop, I know you want to see her, but I don’t think tonight is the best time.” Clint said choosing his words carefully. “There could be some trouble, and I don’t want two kids in the line of fire.”

Cooper was clearly disappointed with his father’s decision, but he understood it, “What will you tell her, about me, if she asks?”

Happy that there wasn’t going to be a fight over Cooper’s attendance, Clint asked, “I’m sure she will ask. What do you want me to tell her?”

“I don’t know, you’ll think of something.” He concluded after a moment of thought on the matter, “Tell her I miss her, and I want to see her soon.”

Not sure if it was his place to suggest but Steve offered, “Why don’t you write her a note?”

Cooper processed the idea then asked his dad, “Do you have her email address?”

Clint dropped his head to suppress a laugh. Steve shook his head, “This generation is doomed. No, I meant you physically pick up a pencil or pen and write her a letter…on paper.” Steve gestured with his hands the act of writing something to make sure the concept was clear.

~~~

Driving through the gate of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters was like driving into a Jane Austin novel. The entire property screamed ‘summer in New England”. Clint didn’t know what he expected but knew that this wasn’t it. The school was only marked with a small bronze plaque on the right side of the school’s entrance. The actual trip took more than the anticipated thirty minutes. Nick had them leave two hours before they were expected so that they could drive around, to see if anyone was following. This was done with the goal of ditching any tails prior to arriving. Steve and Natasha followed for just that reason. Clint or Nick would identify someone following them, then communicate to Steve to take them out. Sam and Rhodey stayed back at the compound to offer support on comms, and to provide protection in the unlikely instance that the compound was compromised.

They weren’t trying to hide the fact they were going to the school. The goal was to reduce the amount of HYDRA agents that were lurking around, and this was the best way to go about to accomplish that objective. Once Nick pulled into the school. Natasha and Steve kept driving until they were able to find an isolated place to hide that was far enough away from any HYDRA cells, but close enough in case they were needed. As far as plan’ A through Z’ went, Steve and Natasha crashing the party was ‘plan N’ according the Clint’s logic. The Secretary was going to be in attendance, and wouldn’t think twice about ditching a party, even one in his honor, to arrest the fugitive Secret Avengers. Tony had filled him in on what had happened when the kids were at the hospital, and the horrible interrogating technique that Secretary Ross was going to do to him, while using Cooper as a pawn.  Thaddeus Ross didn’t know it yet, but he was dead just for thinking about doing that to his son. Then there was the whole Accord mess and Ross trying to frame Clint for Laura’s murder. Ross was a dead man walking. Clint of course, was keeping that part to himself.

Pulling up to the front of the school, Nick parked the car. “Let’s check the equipment before getting out. Mobile unit, you have audio and visual?”

Natasha’s voice came through, _“Confirm. Stationed approximately two-miles northwest of the campus. Can reach you in four minutes.”_

Nick quickly processed the location and predicted ETA, “Make it two minutes. Compound unit, you read?”

Sam confirmed that he and Rhodes could hear and see the transmission. A video unit was attached to Tony’s glasses and the eye patch Fury wore. Clint had a device installed onto his tie clip under the ruse of a simple diamond against a silver background. _“Confirmed. Nice place.”_

Confident that the equipment was working, the Director opened his door. Tony and Clint followed suit and exited the vehicle. They waited while Nick handed the keys to the valet before making their way approaching the school’s entrance. Clint fell behind the group when he felt like he was being watched. Taking a skillful glance around his surroundings he looked up at the mansion and saw a curtain move on the second floor.

“Your feeling is correct Agent Barton.” A voice called, breaking Clint’s train of though. He looked back to the house and saw Professor Xavier there, welcoming his guests. He walked up to greet the host.

“Someone was watching me?” Clint said as he accepted and shook the Professor’s hand.

Xavier looked up to where Clint was previously looking, and informed in a hushed tone, “Girl’s dormitory. I believe someone was trying to see you”

Grasping that the Professor didn’t want it out there where Charlie was, he waited until the next group of visitors greeted the Professor and went inside for the party. “There are a few people I want to see myself. She isn’t attending?”  Fury and Stark were waiting in the doorway, moving out of the way when needed to permit a guest in.

“Only the older students will be gracing us with their presence tonight. However, pending how things go, we shall see if we can fit in a quick visit before ‘lights out’.” Charles offered as compensation to the obviously disappointed father.

“Yeah, if HYDRA and or the government doesn’t ruin the evening, family reunions all around.” Tony said in a triumphant manner as he led Clint away from the Professor and into the party.

~~~

At first look, Clint guessed that there were about a hundred people in the ballroom as he entered. Seemed a lot for the ‘small gathering’ the Professor invited them to yesterday. As soon as they were in, a server brought them over a tray of drinks to pick from. All three of the men accepted a glass.

_“Secretary Ross, center left.”_ Natasha informed. 

Nick answered amusingly, “Yes, Natasha, I still have one good eye.”

Tony rolled his eyes, “Great, we have Captain America and Captain Obvious in our ears.”

“Mr. Stark, Director Fury, and Agent Barton. Funny how we keep meeting like this.” The Secretary said as he met them.

Clint debated the best way to kill the man with the weapons he had on him and was fairly confident that Fury was thinking through the same scenario, while Tony decided to go an alternative route and start the small talk. “Secretary, you should feel pretty damn good about yourself right now.” Ross threw a questionable glance, so Tony clarified, “Being honored by Professor Xavier in such a lavish way.”

Thaddeus smiled, “Of course, I am. You know for mutants, they sure know how to throw a party.” Clint heard the abhorrence in the Secretary’s voice when he uttered the phrase ‘mutant’ and added one more reason to kill the man to his list. “I know why I am here, and it’s highly doubtful that you would be attending to honor me. So, enlighten me, what brings you three here?” He asked taking a small sip from his cocktail.

“Donation to the school. If I am going to give money I like to see where it goes.” Tony explained. It seemed a likely reason for him to be there. Gesturing to Nick Fury, “Director Fury and Agent Barton were my way in. They have had dealings with the school in the past.”

“The school or the X-Men?” Ross inquired,

“I believe they are one and the same.” Tony expressed, “My understanding is that the X-Men are also the staff here. A marvelous business plan if you ask me. I’m thinking of how I would replicate something like it on the west coast.”

“Interesting, I didn’t think that Xavier accepted donations. It’s all privately funded by his own family’s money. Better and older families than the Starks have tried to give.” And with that observation left hanging in the air, the Secretary left the group.

Rhodes observed from the compound unit, _“Is he talking about…”_

Tony cut him off, “He sure is. He’s talking about Kate. The Macintosh family. He knows.”

This was all new information for Clint, “What the hell?”

Energetically talking as he worked out the equation, Tony proclaimed, “Her money. It’s been sitting in an account untouched for almost twenty years. By untouched I mean that there hasn’t been any withdraws. It’s been invested with incredible returns.”  Tony then addressed Clint specifically, “At first, I thought the trust fund money was there because you and she refused to touch it, being all prideful and shit.”

Clint angled his head to the right, thinking about everything that Tony just said. From what he could understand of the topic, it did sound like something he would do. Clint would never be able to live off another person’s trust fund, or any trust fund for that matter.

Fury concluded, “Kate probably offered up the trust fund when she came here, and Xavier refused any compensation, but took control of it to get it away from Bishop.”

Tony continued with the theory, “Xavier takes control, and makes sure that the account has activity on it. That way Derek Bishop can’t claim anything, like she’s dead or something to inherit it.”

Clint had apparently missed a lot of Kate’s backstory. Now wasn’t the time to ask any questions, and it seemed that Tony and Nick figured out whatever the mystery behind Kate’s money was. He only had two concerns at the moment, his wife and daughter. “Just because Ross may or may not know who Kate is doesn’t mean he is a threat to Charlie.”

“True, but it also means that he could be. Remember what he did to Wanda.” Tony cautioned the group as if anyone needed to be reminded about the whole ‘Raft’ situation.

“That happened to her because someone didn’t get his way and had everyone arrested.” Clint said in an effort not to sound passive aggressive.

 “Thought we were going to let that go.” Tony alleged while looking genuinely hurt by Clint’s statement.

Sam piped into the conversation, _“When was that agreed?”_

Before anyone could say anything else, Dr. Hank McCoy joined the group, “Welcome to our school. I hope you are enjoying yourselves.” Looking towards where the Secretary walked to, he continued, “I see you have become reacquainted with our guest of honor.”

Skipping the niceties, Fury questioned, “How much does Ross know about the school?”

Hank pondered his answer for a minute, “The school itself? I would assume a lot. With the forming of the Accords, he was given unlimited access to all government records regarding mutants and any other enhance beings. For the past three years he has been trying to gain entry to the school.”

Following up on that, Clint asked, “Would he know about Kate and Charlie?”

Oblivious to the prior conversation with the Secretary that led to this line of questioning, Hank informed them, “I don’t see any reason he would. It is very clear that the laws of the country that a person involved with the Accords resides in must be followed. For Americans that would be the right to privacy concerning both medical and educational records. It doesn’t matter that currently we are not ordered to sign it; the rules still must be followed. Secretary Ross may know we are a school for mutants and the base of operations for the X-Men, but he would not have access to information about specific students. As far as Kate goes, her identity was changed when she came here.” Focusing on Tony, “You know better than anyone that there isn’t any legal evidence of her since 2001. Her teaching credentials, her medical records, and Charlie’s records are all under the new identity.”

_“A new identity? That may have been a good thing to know before we bumped into her and blew her cover.”_ Rhodes observed.

Ignoring his point, which was a valid one, Clint requested, “And where is she now?”

Taking one of the drinks off the nearby server’s tray, Hank said, “She was here up until a few minutes ago, right before I saw you. There was an issue with a student upstairs that she had to deal with.”

 “I’m just going to go all in and guess it was Charlie.” Tony assumed.

Taking a deep sigh that screamed annoyance Hank reported, “Yes, it is. She saw you all enter and decided that she didn’t want to stay upstairs with the other students anymore which was the previous agreed plan. When she was told ‘no’ by the dorm supervisor, she elected to manifest some very impressive lock systems on all of the doors upstairs.

Tony and Nick appeared to be impressed by Charlie’s stunt, but Clint was already in ‘dad’ mode. He was fighting the urge to suggest that he should go upstairs and put an end to the standoff that was occurring just above their heads. However, he had no idea how Charlie or Kate would react to him if the first meeting was due to a behavior issue. If his daughter wanted to see him, why not just let her? There were a few obstacles with that solution. The first being that as an experienced father and spy, Clint knew to never give in to the demands of terrorists. Another issue was that Ross was keeping an eye on them from his prime position in the center of the room. The last thing that he wanted to do was to give the Secretary another excuse to enforce the Accords. By exposing the capabilities of not only Charlie, but also her fellow students would provide such an excuse. Clint’s internal struggle was disrupted when a woman came up to the group. She was an attractive woman, tall and slim with a dark complexion and white hair. “Excuse me, I’m sorry to interrupt.”

The doctor put his hand on the woman’s shoulder and presented her, “Storm, please let me introduce you to some people. This is Director Nick Fury, Tony Stark, and Agent Clint Barton. Gentlemen, this is Storm, she is both a member of the X-Men and a teacher here at the school.”

Storm grinned and nodded her head in welcoming, “Nice to meet you all, especially you Agent Barton.” Placing her hand on Hank’s arm, she asked, “Dr. McCoy, may I speak with you for a moment?”

Depositing his empty glass on a passing server’s tray, Hank said to the men, “Excuse me please.”

Natasha thought about the actions of the newest member to the Barton and Stark family and questioned _, “Hmm, someone has an issue with authority and being told ‘no’. Steve if you had to guess which one we could blame for that, father or grandfather, which one would you go with?”_

Steve never liked chit-chat during active missions. He subscribed to the belief that comms should only be used for mission related information but couldn’t stop himself from commenting. _“I don’t know, the actual act of defiance I would put on Barton, but how she did it, inconveniencing others because she didn’t get her way, that is all Stark.”_

In unison Clint and Tony took offense, “Hey!”

 Fury had to concur, “It’s a Stark move. I have had the privilege of knowing now four generations of the Starks, and believe me, they are all assholes.”

Clint was stunned by Fury’s statement. Conceding to himself, Clint admitted that Cooper did have his moments, as any teenager did, but Clint wouldn’t go as far to say he was an asshole. Not knowing Charlie apart from second hand information, it appeared the kid was not used to being told ’no’, which was a Stark thing for sure, not that Clint was any better. From the initial impression of the school, it also seemed that the students didn’t want for a lot, which may be a component in the overindulged behavior the ten-year-old was displaying. The girl may be a spoiled brat, but that is where he drew the line at name calling, especially regarding his own children. Clint did know better than to say anything in front of Tony about it. Anything Clint would say would be interpreted as an excuse for Tony to go off on Fury and so far, the man had kept his mouth shut about the insult against his family. Clint was however curious why Kate was included in the offence, “Even Kate?”

Nick didn’t hesitate for a second before replying, “Wait for it, she wasn’t exactly nice to me last time we met, very defensive, not that I blame her. Kate was very polite in the ‘answer my questions or get out of my face’ kind of way. Then you must factor in that she is Stark’s kid, married you, and worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., so it’s doubtful she’s a saint.”

The woman who was previously introduced to them as Storm reappeared, “I’m sorry about that. Dr. McCoy was needed for hosting duties, so Professor Xavier could help upstairs.”

The fact that another man had to go up to stop his child’s tantrum was enough to hit Clint hard enough in the ego to offer, “Would it just be easier if I went upstairs?”

Storm shook her head, “Charlie is just not happy that she didn’t get her way, it happens, not a lot, but it happens. We already had one guy up there trying to talk to her and he punched a hole in the door. So, it is probably for the best to let Kate and the Professor handle it from here.” Looking over to the Secretary who was standing curiously near, she continued, “The timing wasn’t the best, but it’s being dealt with.”

Clint was concerned that it had gotten physical, “Someone punched a hole in the door?”

“Yes, no big deal there. Charlie knows how to push his buttons and did just that. Kate made him leave after, before he escalated the situation further. Oh, there he is.” The men turned to where Storm indicated, “Logan, come here please.”

A man with scruffy dark hair, carrying a bottle of beer approached them. The man totally ignored the others and spoke directly to her, “Storm, I’m telling you, today may be the day I kill that girl. I told you not to put her in the dorms, she thinks it’s a party up there.”

“You’re so funny Logan, shut up. This is Director Nick Fury, Tony Stark,” Storm looked Logan dead in the eyes with a stern face, “and Clint Barton.”

Taking a sip from his beer, Logan looked Clint up and down, “So you’re…”

Clint kept it simply, “The father of the girl that you may kill.”

Looking indifferent to the introduction Logan stated, “Well, I’m not apologizing. Kid is spoiled rotten. Someone needs to lay the law down around here with Charlie. Kate is just too soft on her, especially these last few days.”

_“Clint don’t do it. He is the Wolverine; your first punch wouldn’t even make contact.”_ Natasha warned through the comm. Steve had used the time driving here to fill Natasha in on the research he had done on the school and group. She knew what was going on, this Logan was challenging Clint.  He probably saw Clint as a threat to the child he had been protecting for so long. It was bad enough they were talking about Charlie with Ross walking around, but an altercation would make it obvious. They were all talking in hush voices, so the man couldn’t eavesdrop, but a fight would alert the Secretary to a bigger issue then the Accords.

Clint was weighing the options when he saw the different groups of people scattered throughout the room, allowing Professor Xavier through. The man directed his wheelchair to them.  Clint’s heart and breathing halted when he saw that the Professor wasn’t alone, there was a woman with him. Flashes of every memory of Cooper’s instantly replayed in his head as he watched them come closer until finally he had a recall to the explosion dream again, when he lost her. Professor Xavier looked sincerely pleased when he said, “Gentleman permit me please to introduce to you one of our finest teachers, Ms. Katherine Carbonell.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clint and Kate finally in the same room!


	22. Chapter Twenty-One ~ Rainbows and Bullets

Chapter Twenty-One

Rainbows and Bullets

“Ms. Carbonell?” Tony asked, trying to think hard to place the familiarity of the last name of the woman dressed in a knee length dark purple dress and black high heels. The dress was pretty, it was a halter dress with a high ruffle collar. One hand held a black clutch purse while the other had a half drank glass of white wine. Tony assumed she did this to make sure that both of her hands were full, so she wouldn’t have to shake hands in this uncomfortable situation. Kate’s hair was up in a messy bun that reminded him of his mother’s. In fact, Kate looked quite a bit like the late Maria Stark.

Offering a nervous smile, she stated, “Kate, please.”

Xavier saw that they were being watched so kept up the ruse of introductions, “This is Tony Stark and Clint Barton, and you have already met Director Fury.”

Tony didn’t care who was watching, his daughter was standing in front of him. His flesh and blood alive and talking to him. Then the reason why the last name sounded familiar hit him, “Carbonell was my mother’s maiden name.”

Tilting her head a tad, the nervousness of her smile left, being replaced with more of a smirk, “Interesting how those things happen, isn’t it?”

Tony looked at his daughter. Cooper was right, she was beautiful. Of course, he had seen photos, but it was nothing compared to seeing the real thing. Hank’s earlier comment about comparing features of Cooper and Kate along with his own facial recognition program were correct, Kate and Cooper had the same eyes. How could Tony have walked away from those eyes? He hated himself more at that moment then at the lowest point of his life, which was turning out to be when he walked away from Eleanor and forfeited his daughter to Derek Bishop. “So, you know?”

Kate had made her peace with the ‘idea’ of Tony a long time ago. She could see that Tony was struggling with this discussion, so decided to put an end to his obvious anxiety over the topic, “Since I was very young, yes, I know.”

Releasing an anxious chuckle, Tony downed his drink, “Well, that’s one awkward conversation out of the way.” Patting Clint on the back, Tony moved the attention off of him, “Clint, you’re up.”

_“People who have just met would not be having heart-to-hearts after introductions. Ross is watching.”_ Natasha advised from the van.

Sam’s voice came next, _“Screw that, am I the only one thinking Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ should be playing during this? Come on Clint, say something.”_ Then continued on by humming the chorus to the song, while hitting his hands on the table in the conference room back at the compound to the beat.

Clint felt the air return to his lungs and his heart beating again, well aware that he hadn’t said a word yet. What does someone say to their estranged spouse when they had only learned the other even existed a few days ago? It wasn’t that Clint didn’t feel anything, in fact he felt a lot. That was the main cause of his hesitation. He knew that from the memories he was given, he would feel something for the past he had lost, but now that the lost past had been found and standing before him, looking as beautiful as Cooper remembered her.  How the hell did he get a woman like her, and how the hell did he allow himself to lose her? He wondered if this was how he felt the first time they met over thirteen years ago, instantly in love. Knowing that he needed to say something and soon before Tony started in again, Clint searched for a common topic, “I heard there was an issue with a student, I hope everything is fine now.”

Kate paused, she was standing opposite to Clint. So many thoughts were going through her head, she didn’t know where to start comprehending them. After all these years, and his first question to her after everything was about the wellbeing of their daughter. The Professor did say that Clint seemed to be a good father, and this proved his theory to Kate. “Yes, there will be further discussion with that student later, but it seems they have calmed down. Some students are just more…spirited then others. Do you have any experience with such children Agent Barton?”

She was asking about Cooper, and Clint searched for something to give her about her son, “A bit, obviously not to the extreme you had, but my son once packed up all of his stuffed animals and told me he was going to, and I quote, ‘run away up to Mexico’. All because I turned off the wifi until his chores were done.”

“I seriously need to take over his education.” Tony said softly as he turned to survey the room to confirm no one was watching or listening in.

Cutting her eyes to Tony for his comment, she looked amusingly at Clint. “That’s a sweet story, thank you for sharing.” Kate said in a professional way, working hard to keep up the con of strangers speaking at a social gathering. 

Logan emptied his beer and signaled to the staff for another, “Do I need to go back up there, or is it sorted?”

Kate’s head snapped to Logan, in a low and angry tone she warned through clenched teeth, “Go back up there and I will shoot you dead, regeneration abilities or not, shoot…you…dead.” Turning her attention back to Clint and the topic they were discussing before Logan interrupted, her expression lightened, “I was under the impression that there would be more in your party.”

“I decided that it would be best to leave that additional person back at the compound. They are eager to see you and send their best wishes.” Clint reached into his jacket to produce an envelope. He handed it to Kate, which she tenderly accepted. The envelope was blank except for three letters written on the front, ‘mom’.

Opening her clutch, Kate tucked the letter safely away, wanting to read it in a more secluded location. Taking out an item, she laughed as she handed it to Clint, “Seems they were thinking the same thing, must be related. Part of the deal to unlock the doors was that I would give this to you.” Clint watched as Kate handed him a rainbow keychain, knowing that further explanation was needed, Kate offered, “It’s her favorite. She loves rainbows. Every diaper bag to backpack she has ever had has had that keychain on it.” Feeling a nostalgic moment hit her as she watched Clint examine the object, she continued, “She knows if I tell you how valuable it is to her, you will come see her.”

The comm lines were silent. Everyone felt like they were intruding on a private moment, and they were, but it couldn’t be avoided. Two people who have been to hell and back with the scars to prove it were finally together again and talking about their shared children. The group surrounding them was able to shield them from the sight of unwanted viewers during the exchange of gifts from the children.  As awkward as it was for them to be standing there in person or watching from afar, it was worse for Kate and Clint. They had to keep the game going that they were just people meeting at a party, nothing more. It was almost a relief to the couple since they were unsure what to do in this situation. Do they shake hands, do they hug, do they go somewhere private and talk?

Clint would never get back the ten years of his second daughter’s life.  However, the simple rainbow keychain signified a lot to him, it had always been there with her. The edges of rainbow had chipped off from years of hanging off of various bags.  As he pocketed the object he asked, “When can I see her?”

Xavier looked over to where a podium had been set up, “The upper -level students will be presenting some of their projects shortly. That would be the best time.”

This whole thing was beyond ridiculous to Logan, “The kid just held most of the student population here hostage because she wanted to see him, and now you are giving Charlie what she wants?”

Xavier cautioned, “Logan.”

Not wanting to heed the warning, Logan continued, “Don’t ‘Logan’ me. Aren’t you the one who keeps saying that ‘Charlotte has the ability to save the world or destroy it’? That the only way she will make the right choice when the time comes is dependent on the lessons and values we have raised her with? What is this teaching her?”

Rethinking the idea Kate conceded to the group, “Logan does have a point.”

Nodding his head in agreement, the Professor explained, “He does, but I believe some consideration is needed in this unique situation. The girl just learned a lot of life altering information. She is only ten years old, all and all, her reaction this evening wasn’t unexpected.”

Picking at the label on his beer bottle Logan remarked “So, she gets off the hook, again.” Clint couldn’t understand if Logan was upset because he cared for Charlie and wanted her to be a good person, or if he openly didn’t like her and wanted to see her punished.

Taking offense to the public criticism of her parenting, Kate shot back intensely, “What do you mean ‘again’?”

Logan flared his arms outwards in exasperation, “Dodgeball? Almost electrocuting half her gym class. Remember that ordeal?”

Choking as he swallowed his drink, Clint got out between breaths, “She did what?”

_“Man, your girl is a badass Clint.”_ Sam said, meaning it as a compliment.

Holding her index finger up to Clint, Kate told him, “I’ll tell you later.” Then focused her sight back onto the Wolverine, “I punished her for that. She didn’t get to play outside with her friends. And, if I remember correctly that was half your fault for bringing her to the lab and showing her that stuff.”

When his lungs finally registered to start drawing air again, Clint got out, “So, just so I have a clear understanding about what you two are arguing about, Charlie attempted to electrocute her classmates, and you punished her by not letting her play outside afterschool?”

Taking another sip from his beer, Logan confirmed, “Yup. Then today we had the dorm locking issue.”

“And what was the punishment for that?” Clint asked Kate.

Rhodes was quick to advise his friend on the mistake everyone heard Clint about to make, _“Abort Clint, abort. You’re not going to make any headway with her if within the first ten minutes of you two being reunited, you critique her parenting skills.”_

Kate visually stiffened up, “There hasn’t been one yet. I will talk to her tomorrow about it. You heard the Professor, it’s a unique situation. A reaction from her was expected.”

Clint was taking in what he was being told, Logan seemed to be the right one in this situation, as much as he hated to admit it, “Kate, I’m sorry but expected and accepted are two different things. She needs to be punished, I agree with Logan.”

_“You are making it so much worst for yourself, just stop, will you?”_ Natasha alleged.

Logan was appreciative to see that someone was able to see the ludicrous of the matter, “Thank you Hawkguy.”

Putting his hand up Clint corrected, “It’s Hawkeye, and Clint will be fine.”

Now Kate’s attention was on Clint. The glare she was sending his way reminded him of numerous memories Xavier had given him. That look in the past heralded the start of one of their disagreements, and this time would prove to be no different, “You have only been in the same vicinity of Charlotte for what, a half an hour? And you think that gives you the right to tell me how to discipline her?”

Yup, they were married. If there was any doubt in his mind that what he had been told and shown in the last few days was inaccurate, it was all gone now. In a voice that was still low in volume but harsh in tone Clint explained, “I have been a father for thirteen years, I know a thing or two, especially about children with our DNA coursing through them. Give them an inch and they will walk all over you.”

Tony was shocked by how quickly everything had escalated, and did not like how Clint and this Logan guy were ganging up on Kate, “Are you running for asshole of the year or something Barton? Calm the hell down.”

Steve’s voice piped in, _“As defending champion are you worried he’s after your title?”_ Tony and the rest of the party with comm units were stunned into silence at Steve’s remark.

The Professor took the silence as an opportunity to change the subject before they received anymore unwanted attention due to the increase in volume between Kate, Clint and Logan, and asked, “Mr. Stark, I know it has only been a day, but any headway on the reversal?”

Thankful for the change in subject, he flashed a stern look to Clint before speaking, “It’s a matter of breaking a code that was used during activation. Simple enough to do with the correct system and equations, just have to make sure that everyone is safe when the reversal occurs.”

The S.H.I.E.L.D. director added, “I have my people back at headquarters working on a method of extraction of personnel from missions and covers for the duration of the reversal. Stark believes that it would only take a few minutes to do, but additional time will be needed for the agents to cope with the aftereffects.”

“If I can be of any assistance, please let me know.” Kate proposed as she grabbed another glass of wine.

Tony was hoping she would offer. He was fully capable of doing the reversal himself, but Kate helping would expedite the work and give him some quality time with her. “I may just take you up on that offer. Perhaps tomorrow you can either come to the compound or I can come back here?”

Feeling bad once he played back what was said in his head during Kate and his exchange, Clint extended an olive branch, “If you come to the compound, you can see Cooper.”

Kate’s whole face lit up at the mention of seeing her son, it appeared Clint was back in her good graces, “I would like that very much. Professor can someone cover my classes tomorrow?” Clint forgot that Kate actually had a job, as it appeared Tony did as well.

The Professor thought about his schedule for the next day, seeing that there wasn’t anything pending on his calendar he accepted the position for himself, “I will gladly cover them myself. I do enjoy being in the classroom. We can review the lesson plans in the morning.”

 Pleased that everything worked out so well and quickly, Kate confirmed, “Gentlemen, sounds like we have a date.”

With the arrangements for tomorrow sorted, Dr. McCoy returned to the group, “It seems that everyone is getting on well here, unfortunately, we will need to pause this conversation, it is time for the presentations to start.”

Charles looked up at his friend, “Not unfortunate at all. I am looking forward to seeing what our marvelous students have been working on for the past semester. I’m sure our guests will find many of our presenter’s papers very interesting. Please everyone, excuse me, I need to address the room and present the students.”

Clint saw Kate lean over and whisper something in Storm’s ear. Storm asked something back to which Kate replied simply “thank you”. His confusion didn’t end there, after the hushed exchange, Storm left the room. He wanted to ask Kate what that all was about, but the Professor started his speech at that moment.

“Ladies and gentlemen, for those who do not know me, I am Professor Charles Xavier. First, I would like to extend the warmest of welcomes to each of you and my gratitude for attending tonight. We are here for two reasons, the first is to honor Secretary Thaddeus Ross, and salute his work for pursuing peace in our nation and world.” A polite applause was started and continued until the Professor raised his hands for it to stop. “The second reason is no less important, we are here to recognize the work that our students have been working tirelessly on for the past months. The assignment was centered around the Sokovia Accords that Secretary Ross presented to the United Nations and was approved by a hundred and seventeen countries a few years ago. The students were charged with examining the Accords and weighing the implications such a legal document would have on their own lives. The goal of this assignment was not to make a political point about the law, to protest the involvement of the X-Men or not. It was to use the law to prove to the students that they need to be aware of what is happening in the government and to be active in it.”

Clint was very interested in what these kids thought about the document that caused the Avengers to go at each other and fracture the group. He now had a child who would identify with them, and he was curious what mutant students thought of the Accords. Clint was focused on the first student as they started their presentation when Kate came close to him and whispered, “Want to come upstairs to my bedroom with me?”

Kate’s mistake in this was that she whispered into the ear that had the comm unit in it. Tony’s head turned so fast towards them that he looked to be possessed. There were numerous comments and hilarity on the line which made Clint suppress his laughter. Kate was puzzled by the way Tony and Clint were looking at her. He then decided to share the joke with Kate by pointing to the clear device that was in his ear. Looking at where Clint was pointing, Kate saw the unit and her eyes got wide upon realization of how her comment was interpreted. “I had Storm bring Charlie to my room to see her father.” She clarified to Clint as she looked to Tony.

Seeing Tony relax a bit, Clint wanted to get back at him for his earlier ‘asshole of the year’ comment by stating, “Kate, we’re married and have children together, we don’t need your dear old dad’s permission to go to your bedroom. Lead the way.” The expression on Tony’s face was priceless, but not yet good enough to make them even, so Clint added, “Tony, don’t wait up.”

The couple was already out of the ballroom when Tony finally found his voice, _“I hate you so much Barton.”_

Kate led Clint back to the foyer of the mansion and up the massive staircase that was in the center of it.  Once they were at the top she directed him to the right. “Male staff and students to the left, and females to the right.” She informed him as they walked down the hallway.

“Excuse me.” They turned to the speaker to find Secretary Ross standing at the end of the hallway near the staircase behind them.

“What do you want Ross?” Clint asked thinking of a reason why the man would be upstairs while students were in the ballroom presenting specifically to him. Someone should have noticed he is no longer there. Other than being rude, it wasn’t the smartest political move. Citizens tend to look negatively on their political leaders snubbing children.

Walking up to them Ross said in an obviously fake polite voice, “I haven’t been introduced to this lady yet. I would assume you’re the human teacher, Carbonell isn’t it?” If Clint had to put a label on the manner in which Ross said Kate’s name it would be mockingly, which caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. Ross was up to something, and from personal experience, Clint knew it wasn’t anything good.

‘Reading the room’ Kate was able to notice that there wasn’t any love lost between Clint and Ross. She wasn’t exactly forming warm feelings about the Secretary herself since he had referred to her as the ‘human’ teacher. “Kate. Nice to meet you Mr. Secretary.” Still having the glass of wine in her hand, knowing that she would need it for Clint and Charlie’s meeting, she placed her clutch under her arm and extended her now empty hand to the Secretary.

Accepting her hand and shaking it. He looked the couple over and asked, “Why does Agent Barton get a private tour, and me as the guest of honor doesn’t?”

Kate was quick to reply much to the shock and enjoyment of Clint, “He doesn’t. We were talking downstairs, and it came up that I was somewhat of an archer myself. Unfortunately, the bow I work with is having difficulties and Agent Barton offered to take a look at it.”.

The Secretary wasn’t buying it. “An entire weapons lab on campus and you wait until Agent Barton arrives to get it fixed?”

Kate was becoming irritated by the questions, and didn’t hide it when she shot back, “It just happened. I don’t see why you feel the need to question it. In fact, shouldn’t you be downstairs listening to the students present to you?”

Waving off the last part of her comment about the presentations, the Secretary said, “The opinion of mutant children about the Accords means nothing to me. Regarding the question Ms. Carbonell, I feel the need to inquire on everything regarding the Avengers and the X-Men, tell me is this bow by chance in your bedroom?”

It was now Kate’s turn to ask, “Excuse me?”

Ross wanted to imply, not offend. He was a gentleman and a political leader after all, “I’m not judging, you are both consenting adults, not to mentioned married. Ten years is a long time to be separated. Tell me, are you planning on just locking the door between you and Charlotte’s room or did you put her in the dorms for the night while you and her father got ‘reacquainted’?”

Clint just wanted to punch Ross right in the face. He was going to kill the man, that was a given, but now he was going to suffer. Before they went any further Clint had to ask, “How did you know?”

“It doesn’t matter, just know that I and a few interested parties know.” Ross closed the distance between himself and the couple. Clint stepped between Kate and Ross, which caused the two men to be almost nose to nose. Ross wasn’t intimidated by the move, “And who may I ask is watching your children Agent Barton, all alone in that big compound without anyone to protect them?”

Tony had been listening to the entire conversation and growing more worried by the minute. Not only did Ross know about Charlie and the wipe, he seemed to have just threaten the children at the compound. The kids needed to get somewhere safe now, thank God he left Rhodes and Wilson back at the compound for this very scenario. In a low voice to not attract attention to himself or Fury, or disrupt the presentations, Tony tried contacting the Avenger’s base, “Rhodey?” There was no answer, “Sam?”, again dead air, “FRIDAY, give me a location on Rhodes and Wilson.” Taking out his cell phone as he issued the command the screen only showed red letters against the black background ‘NO SIGNAL’. With a voice that was increasing with each uttered syllable Tony informed everyone who was left on comms, “Shit, FRIDAY is off line, Natasha, you and Steve get back to the compound now!”

_“Already on our way.”_ Steve’s calm voice responded to Tony’s command.  Natasha was driving, which meant the thirty-minute drive would be less than fifteen minutes, especially since it was the Barton children whose lives were in danger.

Nick pulled out his cell phone as he walked out of the ballroom, leaving Tony alone, _“I’m contacting Hill to get you some back up. Should have a team dispatch to the compound in ten minutes by chopper.”_

Clint heard the panic through the comm units, it mirrored his own. The only thing he could do now was protect Kate and Charlie and pray to God that nothing has happened at the compound. His concentration on the comms was cut off when he felt the familiar feel of a gun being pressed against his abdomen. A person couldn’t do Clint’s job for as long as he had without having a gun or two held against him. Looking down, he confirmed that Secretary Ross did in fact have one in his hands aimed at Clint. “Is this really necessary, what’s to gain by shooting me?” Clint made the comment to the group on comms, for them to be aware that he and Kate were being held at gunpoint by the Secretary.

Thaddeus didn’t care if Clint knew his motives or not, he would be dead soon enough anyways. That would be the only way the plan would succeed, with both Clint and Kate dead. After everything the Avengers had done, from Bruce Banner’s relationship with Ross’ own daughter to the Accords, it was time for them to feel an ounce of the pain their ‘help’ has caused the innocent people of the world. At least that would be the official reason behind his actions. He would be a vigilante for the helpless victims of the Avengers. The truth was never to be known, a promise that would be ensured with the pulling of the trigger.

 Not wanting to draw this out any longer then needed, he was at a party in his honor. Eventually someone would come looking for him, then what would he do? It was highly doubtful he would be able to shoot his way out. If that was possible, HYDRA would have taken Charlotte years ago, and Ross would have never been pulled into this mess. But he was in this mess, he had debts to pay that had been called in.  That really didn’t bother him as much as what really irritated the Secretary.  That annoyance went to the way Clint was looking at him. The facial expression of the archer was not of fear but of disgust and discontent in the man holding his own life in his hands. The last time Ross had seen that mixture of emotions in another’s face, it was his daughter, Betty. He wanted to put a bullet right in Clint’s face to wipe away that reminder.

Deciding to answer the question Clint posed about what Ross would gain from this action. The Secretary figured that he could gain much, most of all closure of his disastrous relationship with Betty. Achieving the closure through revenge, by destroying another father’s relationship with his children. He wanted Clint to hurt knowing that he was useless in saving his children, that his selfish death would cause a lifetime of misery for his offspring, “A lot actually. You see the interesting position you have placed yourself in is not only chivalrous, but convenient. One bullet would kill you both. Then were would Charlotte go? Both of her parents being dead, she would have to go to Grandpa Bishop. Her and Cooper both. And that is only half of them…” The speech was disrupted when he caught Kate reaching up and grabbing Clint’s arm at the mention of her father’s name. Ross didn’t want to hurt Kate, that was the one part of this he already regretted. He was now feeling remorse for killing her despite not pulling the trigger yet, and her not remembering him.

Tony didn’t conceal the anger in his voice as he looked around trying to figure out a plan, _“Son of a bitch! They can’t forcibly take Charlie with their people, so they are going to do it legally. Bishop is behind it.”_

Pushing Clint with the gun towards the hallway wall, the Secretary regained his composure and continued, “Professor Xavier can have all the friends he wants on Capitol Hill, he won’t succeed in keeping the girl here. The world saw what the Maximoff girl did. Really, the world saw what the Avengers did. There is no way in hell they would allow another one running around without government control, and let’s face it, Derek never had a need for Charlotte. Cooper on the other hand, an heir is needed for the businesses and trust fund.”

Clint saw red, this was the long play. HYDRA and Bishop had been working together this whole time. Derek Bishop had probably been funding the terrorist organization for years, and Cooper was the key to ensuring the financial support for HYDRA for years to come. Just as Charlie was the instrument they would use to make minions to carry out world domination.

Without any other avenue at the moment, Tony attempted his last resort, before he went upstairs himself and confronted Ross. Thinking really hard he thought, _“Professor Xavier can you hear me?”_

Much to Tony’s surprise an immediate answer came, _“Yes. What is wrong?”_ Xavier could feel the pain and rush in Stark’s mind. He had been concentrating on the presentations, giving the students his undivided attention so he didn’t even notice that something was amiss until then.

_‘Secretary Ross left the party, he has Clint and Kate at gunpoint upstairs. Ross knows everything and wants Charlie.’_ A second later Tony saw the Wolverine start to make his way out of the room in a hurry. The Professor must have communicated with him to get upstairs fast. It was odd to Tony that Xavier had only sent one person, but assumed it was due to knowing that Logan would be able to handle it by himself, and not wanting to cause a distraction with all of the X-Men leaving the room at the same time. With a quick nod to Xavier who was looking at him, Tony followed the man.

There wasn’t any way for Clint to disarm Ross without the possibility of Kate being shot in the process, or someone else in the dorm hallway getting hurt, including Charlie. It was the girl’s dorms, anyone could come out at any time and get shot. There was the possibility that Kate had received some training from the X-Men, but it would be nothing compared to the training she had long ago wiped from her from S.H.I.E.L.D. Probably just basic self-defense stuff in case the school was ever attacked. Not knowing her capabilities, and lacking the time currently to ask, Clint decided it wasn’t a chance he was willing to take.

The only hope now for Kate’s survival was that Clint’s body would slow the bullet down enough to only wound her. A smile appeared on Clint’s face, there was still hope that the children would be safe, even if Kate and he were shot dead right here and now. Ross didn’t know about Tony being the real grandfather. Apparently, all of Laura’s debrief didn’t get to Ross, which implied he was a low man on the totem pole, a minor player. If something did happen to Clint and Kate, Tony would spend his last dime to ensure his grandchildren’s safety, that Clint was definite of. The feature didn’t go unnoticed by Thaddeus Ross, “Smiling Clint? An interesting approach to oncoming death, but to each their own.” And with that the safety was taken off the gun.

Thinking back to his circus days, ‘leave them always wanting more’, Clint enigmatically replied “Yeah I’m smiling, because the results you’re going for isn’t a possibility here.”

Not rising to the challenge, Ross countered, “I would say the same thing to you. The romantic in me is disheartened that you will die before Stark can reverse the mind wipe. You two will never know what you meant to one another. By the way, Derek and Laura say ‘hi’.”

Tony had caught up with Logan as the two climbed the staircase. Nick Fury was close behind. Logan pointed to the right and the two men took the turn. They arrived just in time to see and hear Secretary Thaddeus Ross pull the trigger and Clint and Kate fall. “Shit!” Tony and Logan said at the same time as they ran with all their might towards the scene. Tony stopped at the bodies while Logan let out a feral growl while extending his claws and charged at Ross who was trying to run down the hall.

As soon as Ross made it to the end of the hall, where a large stain glass window was display two people that could only be agents of HYDRA came crashing through it. Glass shard were sent everywhere as the agents grabbed the Secretary and left back through the window.  It all happened so quickly that Logan almost didn’t have time to stop himself before falling through the hole in the wall created by the escape. Peering over the broken glasswork, Logan surveyed the scene outside and started to sniff the air for his prey. Looking back over to where everyone was examining Clint and Kate, Logan knew his services would be better served outside. With a final glance to the landscape below, Logan jumped out the window to track down the shooter.

_“Medical is on the way,”_ Xavier informed Tony through telepathy. _“I am unable to find the Secretary, HYDRA must be blocking my ability somehow.”_

Nick Fury was coming up the hall followed by others. Children were standing in their doorways watching the scene that played out in their dormitory hallway. That was all but one door, it didn’t take a genius to guess what was in that room. It was probably Kate’s room, and Storm was keeping Charlie behind it to shelter the child not only for safety, but from seeing her parents bleed out on the expensively carpeted floor.  

Fury kneeled beside him applying pressure to the wound on Clint, who was still conscious and was trying to get up, while Tony mirrored the action on Kate. “Shit, the bullet went through him into her.” Tony informed as he saw the exit wound on Clint’s back while Nick examined him.

Tony wondered how Clint was still awake and not screaming in pain. He watched as Nick pushed Clint to his side on the floor. “Barton stay down.” The Director ordered. Tony heard Clint’s wet breathing mixed with what sounded to be words. Nick leaned down to hear what Clint was saying and responded. “She’s alive.” With that knowledge Clint closed his eyes and his whole body relaxed. Nick pressed two fingers to Barton’s neck and looked to Tony, “He passed out, but still with us.”

_“Tony?”_ Steve asked as he watched Natasha clench the steering wheel tighter and increase their speed which Steve didn’t think was possible.

“Clint and Kate are down. Ross shot them.” Tony announced, allowing a moment during the chaos to think of the possible reasons why Rhodes and Wilson were not responding. His stomach dropped even further, realizing that he hadn’t heard from Pepper either. “Just get to the compound. Ross is still out there somewhere.”

Natasha’s emotionless voiced filled the line, _“We’re almost there.”_


	23. Chapter Twenty-Two ~ Shot Through The Heart And You're To Blame

 

Chapter Twenty-Two

Shot through the heart and you’re to blame

The total ordeal played out in slow motion for Tony. The paramedics showing up, taking Kate and Clint away on stretchers.  There were people talking to him, but Tony didn’t’ comprehend a single word that was being spoken. He watched as Nick was on the phone, judging by the facial expression, he was yelling at someone. Children had exited their dorm rooms, and were standing in the hallway, crying. The tears were either from the tragedy that just occurred, or the language Nick was using, or perhaps a combination of the two.

“Tony? Tony!” He had to blink a few times before understanding that Fury was speaking to him.

Holding Stark’s head, Fury looked directly into the man’s eyes. Seeing Tony blink, Nick knew he had his attention, and repeated the question. “I said, do you want to go to the hospital or what?”

Returning to reality, Tony weighed his options, “Any reports yet?”

Releasing Tony’s head, Fury took a step back and conveyed, “Yeah, this whole damn thing was a trap.”

~~~

Ten minutes earlier

“The system is down.” Natasha informed Steve as she scanned the compound.

Feeling defeated that they were taken on their own turf, Steve concluded, “So, it’s open season on the Avengers?”

Sharing the feeling with Steve, Natasha had to agree, “Seems that way.”

“I thought Tony said this place was a fortress, no one could get in.” He asked thinking back to their earlier conversation and using Stark’s own words.

“It should be.” Natasha confirmed as she put the scanner away and took out a second device. Waving it around the front entrance to the base, she reported the results, “The place is clean. I don’t get it. Access here is contingent on codes, facial recognition, fingerprints, and DNA. Anyone entering would have to have at least three of the four to be granted entrance. Codes and fingerprints can be worked around, but DNA and facial recognition are harder to fake.”

“First, they would have to get in, then they would have to disable FRIDAY.”

“Again, something I thought impossible.” The device beeped, and Natasha looked down.

The way Natasha looked at the reading made Steve ask, “What’s going on?”

Urgently she threw the device on the ground and jogged away, “Traces of halothane vapors in the air.”

“What is that?” Steve called after her.

Natasha ran back to the van they were driving to grab a bag. Running back up, she explained to Steve the problem as she removed two masks, throwing one to him, “A component of knockout gas, it prolongs the effects of anesthesia. Not widely used in America anymore, mostly in other countries. Maria, are you on comms?”

The newest addition to the comm line came through, _“Yes.”_

Relieved that they had backup Natasha replied, “Good, we will need emergency services. They sprayed the place with knockout gas.”

_“Understood, we are on the roof. Entering now.”_ The Assistant Director answered.

“After you.” Steve gestured towards the door.

As the S.H.I.E.L.D agents swept the top floors, Natasha and Steve searched the bottom, the plan was to meet in the middle. Since it was after hours, and due to the danger of HYDRA in the area, the compound had been running on a skeleton staff during the day, and almost no one on duty at night. Knowing that Natasha was in a hurry to get upstairs and check on the children, Steve sent her up while he went to the conference room, which Rhodes and Sam were working out of tonight for mission support. 

Steve didn’t have to get far into the room before he saw them. Sam and Rhodes were both lying unconscious on the floor. Leaning over Sam to check his vitals, Steve heard the ventilation system turn back on. Someone must have been able to restart the systems and set the airing system on reverse to extract the gas out of the building. Being one of the smaller of the room on the base, it didn’t take long before the men started to come around.

“Steve?” Sam asked, struggling to open his eyes.

Helping Sam into a sitting position, and moving on to do the same with Rhodey, Steve explained, “The place was gassed, you will be fine.”

Standing up with the support of the conference table, Rhodey tried to clear his head, “How did that happen?”

Shaking his head Steve replied, “Don’t know, someone got in. You guys feeling alright?”

Placing his hands on his hips and looking around the room Rhodes answered, “Things are a little foggy, but I’m ok, Sam?”

Moving from the floor to one of the chairs, Sam said as he reclined, “Yeah, I’m good.”

S.H.I.E.L.D.’s medical team started to move into the room to tend to Sam and Rhodey. Both waved off any assistance. “Anyone else?” Steve asked one of the agents as they were leaving the room since their services had been dismissed.

The agent removed his gas mask, “Two more, a boy and woman upstairs on one of the residential floors.” The agent looked to where Sam and Rhodey were, “They’re in the same condition as these gentleman, but should be fine. I would suggest everyone go to the hospital and get checked out.”

“Nah, I don’t need a hospital.” Sam countered.

Speaking to both of the recovering men, Steve informed, “Well, we are going to the hospital anyways for other reasons, so might as well get a look over.”

Sam silently conceded to a medical evaluation at the hospital, then questioned, “Why are we going anyways? What happened?”

Steve spoke without emotion, because right now they couldn’t afford any. With a short answer, because that was all he could handle, Steve filled the two men up on what had transpired at the school, “Clint was shot. Kate too.” Any follow up questions were cut short when Steve readdressed the agent’s assessment of the other victims, “Cooper and Pepper were the others I would assume.” The agent nodded and left the room.

A thought hit Steve like a ton of bricks and urgently called after the departing agent, “What about the other two children?”

Natasha was suddenly there with her arms protectively around Cooper and Pepper by her side. Cooper looked confused and Pepper appeared as if she had been crying, or at least the gas had made her eyes water. Nat motioned to the ear piece and took hers out. The three men in the room took the hint and did the same. Whatever Natasha was about to tell them was something she didn’t want everyone to know. “They’re gone. Someone took Lila and Nate.”

~~~

Present

Maria Hill had called in to report the activities at the compound to Director Fury. She informed her boss that she was escorting everyone to the hospital, then would come to the school to assist in the search for Secretary Ross. When Tony had asked for a report, Nick caught him, and Professor Xavier, who was now on site, up to speed on what happened.

“It was Laura. Had to be. I put the kids into FRIDAY’s system this afternoon. I thought I was being proactive. They were going to be living there, at least I hoped they would be. The kids needed access to the compound.” Tony had warned Clint that they hadn’t seen the last of Laura. He just didn’t think she would make her move so fast, or like this.

Nick decided now wasn’t the time to debate if putting the kids into the security system was right or wrong. It had happened, and this was the consequence, now they needed to fix it. “How would Laura gain access?”

Staring at the red stains on the carpet, Tony went into auto-pilot and explained his security system that just earlier today he was so proud of, “To get in, a person has to provide three of the four identifying features. A fingerprint, DNA sample, facial recognition, or a code. Laura’s DNA would have gotten her one, because FRIDAY would have matched it to Nathanial’s. Even if she only matched fifty percent, it would be enough to get a hit on the boy and ‘green light’ her on that requirement.  She probably had something with Nate’s fingerprints on it, that’s two. After that, a code would have been simple to hack for her.”

He told Clint that his children were safe at the compound, he told himself the children were safe. They had left Cooper there instead of bringing him to the party for that very reason, he was safer at the compound. A grandfather for just a few days, and Tony felt like he had already let down each child, and their parents. “I would like to get the kids back before Clint wakes up.” Tony refused to believe that Kate and Clint’s condition was anything but temporary, they would recover. However, despite Tony’s best hopes, loudly the stain and broken wine glass on the floor screamed differently. Pulling himself out of the spiral of ill-thinking Tony added, “I will contact Dr. Helen Cho in Seoul right now to get over here with her regeneration cradle.” He pulled out his cell phone as he spoke.

“Hill had already taken care of that. Cho is enroute. Let the surgeons work on them until she gets here. As far as getting Lila and Nate back sooner rather than later, that’s a given.” Nick said as he typed on his phone. Finishing whatever it was he was typing, Nick looked up, “I don’t get it, why not just grab Cooper while they were already there?”

“Because they need to do this legally. It’s the only way it works. Bishop must legally gain custody of Cooper and Charlie, it’s the only way HYDRA wins. You heard what Ross said. We all knew HYDRA wouldn’t be able to walk in here and take Charlie. They found a loophole, kill the parents and send in the HYDRA’s rat of a grandfather in to take them. They didn’t have to sacrifice one person on their team, and they still win.”

Understanding that a legal battle as well as a physical one was brewing Xavier decided, “I will get our lawyers on this right away.”

Getting the lawyers involved sounded like a good idea to Tony, “Yeah, I should probably call mine as well. Petition for emergency custody.”

The Professor felt the need to point out before anything further was done, “Katherine made a will a while ago placing Charlotte into our care if anything were to happen to her.”

“I’m not disputing that, this is the best place for her.” The last thing that they needed was to fight among each other while the kids were displaced and the parents on their way to an operating room, “We are on the same team here Xavier. As back up I also have a will that Clint made when Kate was pregnant giving a woman named Natasha Romanoff guardianship of both Cooper and Charlie. It was made before the wipe happened. Natasha is another Avenger, and best friends with Clint, she won’t argue with Charlie staying here while her parents recover.”

 “My understanding is that Ms. Romanoff is also a fugitive of the Accords,” Professor Xavier said, choosing his words very carefully as to not offend. Tony being granted custody was the best option at the moment. The school didn’t have any claim to Cooper, but Tony did. It would be a better argument for Stark, as the biological maternal grandfather, to fight for them as a pair instead of individually. “I would suggest we leave Clint’s will out of the equation. Right now, we need to get the children awarded to you for the time being.”

Fixated on the stains which were slowly becoming darker as they dried, Tony asked, “Any word on Ross?”

“Logan and Scott are still searching the grounds along with others. If he is still here we will find him, but I doubt he is on the property any longer.” The Professor informed.

“What’s going to happen now, with Ross?” Tony asked Nick. The man just shot his daughter and her husband, Tony’s teammate and friend, in an attempt to gain control of his grandchildren and payback against the Avengers. Anything that would previous be considered too cruel of a punishment was now polite.

Putting his phone away, Fury cast a light onto the situation, “Don’t know, we would have to find the bastard first. But once we get him, I can’t imagine anything good happening. He was not only on the UN’s council to oversee the Avengers’ activities under the Accords but also had a seat on the newly rectified World Security Council. The Defense Security and what remains of the Council would like to speak to him. The best place right now for both security and safety would be the Raft.” Then the Director interjected his opinion for the future of Secretary Ross, “Would love to give that man a taste of his own medicine. However, it’s not my call. Again, we have to find him.”

Tony noticed that while Nick was explaining what would happen to Thunderbolt Ross, Xavier looked to be out of it. “Professor are you alright?”

The Professor turned his head to the closed door that Tony earlier guessed belonged to Kate, “She’s scared. Storm is struggling to calm her, but she knows something has happened.”

“Charlie.” It was not a question, but a statement knowing that Charles Xavier would only be talking about a student’s emotions in their presences unless they had a connection and vested interest with the child.

Moving his wheelchair towards the door, the Professor replied, “Yes, I should go speak to her.” He then stopped, unsure of his next move, “Explain…something, I don’t know.”

Tony knew there was nothing he could do for Kate and Clint right now. Pepper and Cooper where alright, they would still need to go get checked out by a doctor. Probably after that, just go sit in the waiting room with the others to wait for news. That poor boy, Tony thought to himself, he had been poisoned by Laura twice in one week. The one thing Tony could do was help in comforting the pair’s daughter, “Would you mind if I came with you?”

Xavier understood the predicament that Tony was in, the man had just witnessed something that somewhere deep in his subconscious, felt responsible for. “You may”, the Professor agreed.

“I will wait for Hill here and meet you at the hospital later.” The S.H.I.E.L.D. Director informed the men as he turned to descend the stairs to wait by the entrance.

The Professor knocked on the door and without waiting for an answer, opened it and went in. Tony followed feeling slightly nervous and uncomfortable walking into his daughter’s bedroom to comfort his scared granddaughter. Storm was seated in a Princess Anne styled chair, clearly an antique, that was next to the bed. The shape of a tiny body was visible, beneath the comforter on the bed.

“Charlotte please come out from under there, we need to talk.” The Professor said in a stern voice that Tony found inappropriate given the situation. However, the child instantly obeyed the strict instructions, and uncovered her head. She adjusted herself to be leaning against the pillows.

Tony was dazed when he saw his granddaughter for the first time. There could be no debate over who her parents were. Charlotte was the perfect combination of both Clint and Kate. At first glance, she was a carbon copy of her mother, pale skin, black hair, and blue eyes. Knowing her father, Tony was able to notice that the eyes were a cold blue, almost gray that were Clint’s coloring. Tony had been involved in many staring matches with Clint over the years and could tell that the exact same eyes were staring at him now. She had her mother’s high cheek bones, but Clint’s jaw line. She was very beautiful, and he wasn’t just saying that because Charlie was his granddaughter. She was a pretty child with the promise of becoming a stunningly beautiful woman. Tony and Clint would have their hands full when it came time for her to date he predicted.

“You’re the Ironman, I’ve seen you on television.” The child stated to him.

Tony couldn’t tell by the tone if she was asking or telling him who he was, so to hedge his bets he simply answered, “Yup, that would be me.”

Charlie added dispassionately, “You’re also my grandfather, Tony Stark.”

So, Kate had told Charlie everything, that made it easier, much to the relief of Tony, “A very smart girl you are.”

Getting straight to the point, and at the same time proving she was a member of the Stark family Charlie asked, “I know. Where is my mom?”

Storm informed them before either man could answer, “She heard the shot.”

Charlie looked to the Professor and ask the questions that broke Tony’s already fragile heart as it made him truly understand the hell that Kate and her child had been living in for the past ten years. “Was it HYDRA? Did they hurt my mom again?”

Deciding to be both truthful and vague at the same time, Xavier responded, “The details aren’t clear right now Charlotte, but it does appear that way.”

Charlie inhaled through her nose and wiped at it, trying not to let the tears that filled her eyes fall. “Where is she?”

“At the hospital.” The Professor knew what Charlotte was thinking without reading her mind.  The ten-year old was scared. Katherine had left campus before to run errands, but was never gone long, and never overnight. Charlotte had spent nights away in the dorm numerous times, for various reasons, but her mother was never far from her. She always knew where her mother was, and vice versa.

Charlie started to play with the bedsheet, focusing hard on her hands, “Is Dr. McCoy there?”

Charles Xavier answered, “Yes, Charlotte, he is.” Tony didn’t know that piece of information, but Hank being there was probably a good idea.

Releasing the sheet, Charlie looked up again. She seemed to have relaxed a little. “He’ll take care of her, he always does.” The faith this child had in the X-Men amazed Tony, she believed in what they said to her.  Tony had never in his life experienced that level of trust from anyone. In that moment, Charlie having that same faith in him became a life goal. “I want to go see her”, Charlotte demanded.

The Professor shook his head, “Charlotte, you know you can’t leave the grounds. It’s too dangerous.”

Pushing herself up onto her knees, she refuted to Xavier, “It’s dangerous here also, mom got shot. The school isn’t safe anymore!” That comment hurt Professor Charles Xavier, a lot. A place he prided himself as a safe-haven for mutants had been violated. Children should always feel safe in the place they called home, and now the school would forever be tainted for Charlotte.

Casting a look around the room, Charlie commanded, “Where’s Clint Barton? He is my dad, mom said so. He was supposed to come see me, he’ll take me to my mom.” Interesting Tony observed, Charlie already thought she could persuade Clint to do her bidding. Tony stepped in, “He is at the hospital, Clint, your dad,” Tony quickly added in an effort to get both himself and the child used to the title, “was hurt also.”

“I want to go.” The voice of the girl sounded pitiful, vulnerable and innocent all at the same time. The sound made Tony want to just pick her up and take her to Kate. He would give his grandchild anything she wanted, just to make her stop sounding like that.

Xavier looked to Storm, then closed his eyes only to reopened them a second later, “Charlotte, I’m not going to make you any promises. Let’s wait and see what happens in surgery, then the staff and I will discuss if you can go, and the safest way it can occur, if it can happen.”

Charlie seemed to accept that arrangement for the time being, but followed up with, “Are you going to the hospital?”

“I’m going to stay here with Director Fury for a while. Your grandfather will go be with them and call me when there is something that we need to know.” Xavier explained looking to Tony for validation, which he provided with a head nod.

The child got out of the bed and walked past everyone to the desk that was in the corner. While the seated participants could not see what she was doing, Tony could from his standing position. Charlie was getting a cellphone, as she unplugged it from the charger, she directed at her grandfather, “What’s your phone number?”

Storm chided the girl in a drained voice, “Charlie don’t play with your mom’s phone please.”

“Hey, give me the phone princess.” Tony surprised himself how quickly the pet name rolled off his tongue. Charlie complied, and Tony brought up the contact screen with one hand while the other retrieved his own phone from inside his jacket. A few clicks later and his phone rang, “All done. Now you have my number and I have your mom’s. If you need me Charlie, no matter what reason, you call.” He said as he handed her back the phone.

Charlie scrolled through the phone and once satisfied that Tony had indeed put his number in it, questioned him, “Are you going now?”

“Yes, unless you want me to stay.” Tony didn’t know what he would do if she asked him to remain.

“No, you can go,” The comment had Tony standing there in a stunned silence, was he seriously being dismissed by his ten-year-old granddaughter? To add insult to injury she instructed him, “Call me when you get there.”

Storm stood up and walked up behind Charlie, placing her hands on the girl’s shoulders, “Charlie, you need to try to get some sleep. How about he calls you in the morning?”

Charlie looked up and turned her head to see Storm, “And tomorrow I can go to the hospital and see her?”

Reminding her of their conversation of an entire minute ago, Xavier repeated, “I said no promises.”

Charlie pointed out to the older man, “But you didn’t say ‘no’.”

Smiling, Storm patted one of the shoulders and told Tony, “Kate always said that the girl is destined to be a lawyer.”

“Heaven forbid,” Tony said out loud, thinking what a lawyer with Charlie’s abilities could do, she would be successful, there was no doubt about that. “That reminds me, I need to call one. Good night Charlie.”

The girl approached him, Tony didn’t know what to do, so he kneeled to her level. Charlie seemed to study him for a moment, before finally saying, “Good night Tony Stark. I will see you tomorrow.”

“A demanding little thing isn’t she?”, Tony said to the room, the looked back at his granddaughter, “I’m afraid I am also going to have to say, ‘no promises’, there is a lot of stuff happening right now, and the adults are going to be busy trying to fix it. I will promise you that I will call tomorrow morning, so keep that phone on you.” Standing up, Tony informed her, “You know Cooper, your brother, he calls me grandpapa.”

Literally laughing in his face, Charlie proclaimed, “That’s just stupid,”

“Charlotte.” Professor Xavier scolded.

Standing up, Tony looked down at the child, “Well, you are Clint’s girl, that’s for sure.”

~~~

Pepper walked into the waiting room where Sam, Rhodes, Steve, Natasha, and Cooper were all present. Steve was pacing the room while Natasha, Sam, and Rhodes were seated nearby. Cooper was laying across three chairs, pretending to be reading a magazine. “Tony asked me to get the lawyers involved and have them petition for emergency custody. They’re working on it now. There is apparently another player in the game now.”

 Natasha nodded, she had heard what Ross said about Derek Bishop and asked about Tony’s whereabouts, “Where is Tony now?”

“He is on his way, Charlie needed some consoling before he could leave. The shooting happened right outside the room she was staying in.”

Steve stopped his pacing and addressed the room, “When will any of these kids catch a break?” Lila was just told this morning that Laura had done something wrong and had to go away, only to have Laura show up hours later to take her and her younger brother away. The trail was cold, but everyone was busy on their phones pulling at threads, contacting sources, and calling in any favors they had squired away for a rainy day. They were trying to find something that would give them anything on where Lila and Nate were.

Tony walked in on Steve’s comment and replied, “As soon as we get them back and take care of ‘she who shall not be named’, the kids will be fine.”

“Hey Gramps.” Cooper called over the magazine in a tired voice. Tony thought it was somewhat casual for someone who had been drugged twice in a matter of days by the same person, a woman he had called ‘mom’ for ten years. Then calculating in the kidnapping of his younger siblings and shooting of his parents by a government official. Yeah, Tony deduced, Cooper’s greeting was odd.

Deciding to start off this conversation lightheartedly, Tony joked, “Gramps? Pepper these kids have no respect for me. Thought we all decided I would be Grandpapa, first Charlie calls me ‘Tony Stark’, and now this one” he pointed to Cooper, “calls me ‘Gramps’.”

Putting the magazine over his face, Cooper apologized from underneath, “Sorry, hello Grandpapa.”

“Thank you, that’s better.” Tony accepted the apology, while giving Pepper a questionable look.

Pepper leaned in and whispered into his ear, “The doctor gave him a sedative, he is very relaxed right now. We have a prescription even.”

Doing a double take at Pepper once he processed what he was told, Tony observed, “So, he has been drugged three times in,” he checked the date on his watch, “four, five days?”

“It’s only been three days.” Cooper corrected from still under his magazine tent.

“Are you shitting me?!” Tony screamed, shocking everyone in the room at the outburst. Three days, there is no way that was correct.

Everyone in the room yelled in harmony, “Tony!” Pepper swatted him on the arm. Tony noticed the magazine was moving up and down on top of Cooper’s face, indicating that the kid found this humorous.

Putting his hands out in front of him in defeat, Tony excused, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled that in a hospital, especially with Cooper right there.”

Once again from the hidden depths of the magazine, the teenager remarked, “I’ve heard worst, have you ever met my dad?”

Tony pointed to his grandson, which was useless since he couldn’t see the gesture, “Doped up peanut gallery, quiet.” He turned to Pepper, “Why did you let them medicate him?”

In a hushed voice, Pepper summarized her reasons, “Tony, the kid was on edge. Even before tonight’s events he was hanging on by a string. Then he wakes up, not from a nap, but knockout gas and finds Lila and Nate gone. He feels responsible that he didn’t protect them, not to mention the rejection he must feel that he was left behind. He understands Laura isn’t his mother, but tonight cements that. She was his mother and left him twice in three days.”

Interjecting his point Tony said, “There is no way it has only been three days.”

Not allowing him to stop her explanation, Pepper continued, “Three days, not to mention his parents were just shot and are down the hallway fighting for their lives!”

Having someone lay out all the turmoil that Cooper had incurred over the last three days really put it in perspective for Tony as to how much the kid had to be suffering, “Okay, I will concede, you may have done the right thing.” He then asked the room, “How are Kate and Clint?”

Steve took the lead, “Damage was pretty bad to both of them.” He looked briefly to make sure Cooper was not paying attention, but how could anyone tell?  Just to play it safe Steve lowered his voice and got closer to Tony, “Clint flatlined twice, once during transport and another on the table.”

 Tony knew it was bad but was hoping that it wasn’t that bad. Fearing the answer to his next question, he asked it anyways, “And Kate?”

“Massive blood loss, but no damage to the organs that can’t be fixed.” Natasha said speaking from experience, then added, “It’s a gut shot for both, not pretty and hard to repair.”

Bringing his hand to his forehead Tony held it there for a moment before confirming, “Yeah, I saw.” He didn’t need to be reminded where they were shot, he was there, he had to hold his daughter’s stomach together with just his hands. Tony’s pants and lower part of his shirt were caked in her blood. In an attempt to reassure more himself than anyone else he said, “The cradle will fix it, doctors just need to keep them alive until Helen gets here. How far out is Dr. Cho?”

Sam threw a glance to the door that was the entrance to the operating rooms, “Already here.”

“What?” Tony inquired. Even with the fastest jet Tony owned or could design, it was at least an eight-hour flight from Seoul to the hospital.

Pepper expanded on Sam’s comment to answer the question, “She was presenting at a conference in Boston about the cradle. She got here about twenty minutes ago.”

Tony breathed a sigh of relief, maybe, just maybe things were starting to turn. “It looks like our luck is finally changing.” Turning to Pepper he retracted his earlier request, “Then I guess the lawyers won’t be needed.” Then he addressed everyone, “Where are we with finding the little Bartons?”

Never being a person to leave things as important as this to chance, Pepper advised, “I think we need to pursue the emergency custody until they are released from the hospital. Better safe than sorry.”. Again, Tony had to concur she had a point. He agreed with a quick nod to confirmed that she could continue with the petition.

Steve brought the attention back to Tony’s last question, “As far as Lila and Nate go, we don’t know. Have a few leads that Hill is checking out for verification. If anything pops up, we’ll be ready to move.”

“We better have more than verification for when Clint wakes up.” Natasha counted, looking as angry as anyone had ever seen her before.

“I don’t know if you told us, or Clint did.” Rhodes started as he stood up. The combination of not sleeping and being knocked out, made him anxious to do something physical. At the time, all he could do was take over the pacing responsibilities from Steve. “But someone said that when the wipe happened, people in deep cover stayed with HYDRA, not remembering that it was an assignment. They probably just believed that they turned to the dark side at some point in their career.”

Natasha didn’t really care, her best friend was having surgery or getting tissue regenerated, she didn’t know what the doctors were actually doing. What she did know was that he was hurt and had technically died twice already. The last thing she needed right now was a trip down memory lane, “Yeah, so?”

Rhodes pushed forward to get to his point, “So, if you undo the wipe, these ‘HYDRA/S.H.I.E.L.D. agents’ will remember that they are in deep cover. They’ll call in and ask for an extraction. That’s ten years’ worth of HYDRA intelligences these people have.”

Steve saw where Rhodes was going with this, “Someone may know where Laura and the kids are.”

“Someone may.” He confirmed. “Hell, they could be privy to the entire mission profile.”

Natasha had to identify the problem with a reversal that had been discussed countless times already, “It’s a great idea, but there is no way Fury will approve the reversal for two kids, even if they are Clint’s. You are putting two children’s lives against thousands of agent’s and countless civilians. He won’t ‘ok’ anything, at least not until he is comfortable with the possible consequences. Just ‘pushing the button’ so to speak has too many variables.”

Liking what Rhodes was suggesting, Tony refuted Natasha’s caution, “Variables that he is trying to contain. Just not fast enough for us to get going. It’s not just intel on Laura that we would get from reversing the wipe. Like you said Rhodey, its ten years’ worth of information on HYDRA. Seventeen if you count the people who were already in deep cover years prior to the wipe. That’s stuff on their mission, their research, people, everything. It could be the biggest takedown of the organization since World War II. It could even destroy it in its entirety if the information is good enough.”

“The reversal of the wipe could be the endgame.” Steve declared in astonishment of what was possible. A fight that he has been part of for over seventy years, having the potential of being completed in the not so distant future. “Tony, can you really undo it?”

“I’m close.” Tony confirmed. “A few hours of work in my lab, and I can crack the code. The problem is, as soon as I hack it, I must install the reversal virus within the wipe control system in three minutes. The clock ticks to zero without a code and the program will burn out and I start from scratch.” Seeing that Steve was coming up with a plan, Tony handed control over and in doing so buried a part of the Civil War, “What’s the call Cap?”

Accepting Tony’s peace offering, Steve started calling out the plan, “Natasha, you have been with Fury the longest. Call him, do whatever you have to in order to sell him on this being done tonight, at the latest tomorrow morning. Let him know, we are not asking for permission, it’s happening. However, we would appreciate tactical support, and any attempt at lessening the collateral damage.”

Having no intention of leaving the hospital until Clint could do the same, Natasha welcomed the distraction, “On it.”

About tactical support, Steve asked Tony, “Will the X-Men help?”

Crossing his arms, Tony confirmed, “They were willing to help before the shooting, I doubt they would retract the offer now. That Logan almost killed Ross in the hallway, he’s looking for a good fight right about now.”

“Good, Rhodes and I will go over there and strategize with them. Pepper and Cooper, you two come with us. The school will be the safest place to wait until this is over.” Cooper had already fallen asleep on the makeshift couch, so Pepper agreed for the both of them. Steve continued, “We also need Professor Xavier to start the process on getting Wanda here legally and here now. We need her and Vison in this fight, but if this Bishop does what Ross threaten, they could use Wanda’s past as a way to get to Charlie. We don’t know where this fight is going to take us, and we can’t be watching our back for the United Nations while HYDRA comes at our front. I doubt they will be worried about Sam, Natasha or even myself with everything going on with Ross right now, but Wanda will remain high on their list.” He asked Tony, “What are the odds we will be able to procure a second marksman from this?”

Knowing that Steve was referring to Kate’s S.H.I.E.L.D. past Tony rationalized, “Well, if the bullet to the stomach didn’t piss her off enough to join the fight, waking up to remembering she is a trained assassin with the desire for revenge over losing ten years with her family will. Add Derek’s involvement and the kidnapping of the kids, and I can safely say she is a sure thing to join up.  I can make up a kit for her similar to Clint’s while I’m running the reversal program.”

Satisfied with Tony’s answer, Steve moved onto Sam, “Sam go back to the compound with Tony. You will be coordinating between the X-Men, Avengers, and S.H.I.E.L.D. We will need the agents for the removal of the deep covered ones. We could possibly be hitting numerous bases at once and the more the merrier.”

Everyone had their assignments and were about to depart to their designated responsibility when the doors opened to Dr. Cho and Dr. McCoy entering the waiting room. In greeting Dr. Cho addressed the room, “Ah, I see everyone is here now. Good to see you again Tony.”

Returning the welcome, Tony replied, “Helen, really wish we wouldn’t keep meeting because Barton hasn’t learned yet that bullets don’t bounce off him.”

Smiling at the joke, she attempted one herself, “Well, three more times and he will get a free frozen yogurt.”

Wanting to put an end to the joking, Steve interrupted, “How are they?”

Remembering that she was a doctor, and in a room full of the patients’ concerned friends and family, Dr. Cho reported, “The doctors did a great job keeping them stable until I arrived. We were able to repair the damage. Kate is stable now, but Clint may need another blood transfusion before I agree to pull back on the anesthesia.”

Thinking that it was a good plan to keep the Bartons asleep for the next few hours, Tony suggested, “Is it possible to keep them under for a bit longer?”

Dr. McCoy had only known Tony for two days, but could tell the man was up to something, “Why?”

“Other than they both probably need the sleep?” Tony asked and could tell that Hank needed a better reason than sleep for approval of keeping people under heavy anesthesia longer than necessary. He guessed that is what made McCoy a good doctor, “Clint’s kids are gone, the younger two. HYDRA grabbed them around the same time Ross shot Kate and Clint. He will not be happy, for lack of a better word, when he wakes up and we have nothing to go on.  We are reversing the wipe to get a lead to come forward. My reasons for keeping Kate under is that with everything she went through with just getting Cooper’s memories, I’m concerned what will happen when she gets everything back.”

The suggestion was a good one to Hank. He would actually prefer Kate be under medical supervision for the aftermath of the memories being returned, “If that is the case then I believe we could order they be kept under for the night. Dr. Cho, any reservations regarding adjusting the orders?”

Helen shrugged her shoulders in indifference, “I already stated that Clint would need to remain sedated to give his body an opportunity to heal and see if he needed another transfusion. The cradle rebuilds the tissue but can’t create blood, at least not yet. Both he and Kate took a hit, we must give their systems a chance to reboot, so to speak. By morning, they both should be fine.”

Sam shook his head in amazement, “That’s amazing. The man flatlines twice in the last hour, and he’s going to be able to walk out of here tomorrow?”

“Isn’t science great?” Tony asked they posed a question to Hank, “Are you heading back to the school, or are you staying here?”

Hank answered, “I need to go back and retrieve Kate’s medication for her morning dose. The matter had slipped my mind entirely with everything taking place. I will be returning shortly. Why?”

“Bring enough medicine for at least a few days, we don’t know what is going to go down. I’ll find a way for it to be secure in her uniform.” Already Tony was thinking about designs. He would need to alter one of Natasha’s uniforms for Kate. It would give him something to do while he was running schematics for the wipe reversal. “Steve can give you a ride. Do you think there would be any objection about Pepper and Cooper staying at the school for a while? We would like to keep them safe, plus, it would give Cooper and Charlie some time to get to know each other.”

“No objection at all.  I thank you for the ride.” Hank said towards Steve and Pepper, then emphasized a point to Tony, “I hope you will notify me before you do anything.”

Tony didn’t come this far just to lose Kate, not to a bullet, but to a medical condition. That would be very counterproductive to his goals. “Of course, Hank. I also wouldn’t mind a copy of Charlie and Kate’s blood work to compare against Bruce’s.”

Suppressing a chuckle at Tony’s attempt to obtain his daughter and granddaughter’s medical records. Hank calmly pointed out, “I think you have enough on your plate at the moment, and I would like Kate’s permission before I hand out any medical information. If you are in a hurry to start the comparisons, why not just send me Dr. Banner’s information.”

“I’m sure Bruce wouldn’t mind.” Tony commented as he watched Cooper slowly roll off the chairs. He was fine to let the boy fall, he had to wake up anyways to go. However, Steve displaying his quick reflexes caught the boy before he fell the whole two feet to the carpeted floor. “I think you guys need to get going before Cooper becomes a patient again.”

Steve was holding the unconscious teenager, cradling the boy in his arms, and it only added to the dramatics when he announced, “Avengers, let’s go to work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone still reading. Please let me know what you think so far. Kudos and comments always welcomed. Love the feedback!


	24. Chapter Twenty-Three ~ A Great Man

 

Chapter Twenty-Three

A Great Man

“Tell me this wasn’t your plan all along.” Natasha implored of Director Nick Fury as she kept her sight on Clint’s sleeping body in the hospital bed. “Wait long enough for deep cover agents to collect a sufficient amount of information, then reverse the wipe.”

Brushing off the accusation, Fury revealed, “Life hands you some lemons, you make lemonade.” He wasn’t going to insult her intelligence by saying she was wrong. While others were focused on the negatives associated with the wipe and the loss of personnel, Nick saw an opportunity. Agents wouldn’t have to work so hard to keep their stories straight, dealing with the burden and stress of living a double life. None of it was a factor if they didn’t know they were doing it.

She watched as the newest reading appeared on the monitor connected to Clint. Dr. Cho had reassured her that he was fine, and the cradle worked fantastically, even better since there had been numerous improvements since the last time he utilized it. Now they were just letting his body rest, so he would be ready for the coming fight. “So, you just let it happen?”

Walking to the other side of Clint’s bed so he could look at Natasha while they spoke, Nick defended himself, “I didn’t let shit happen Agent Romanoff. Nothing happened to my agents that didn’t happen to me as well. I wasn’t just going to sit around on my ass and accept that HYDRA got one over on us. “

Sharply Natasha pointed out, “You didn’t lose your wife and child.”

Nick refused to take the blame for what happened to Kate and Clint, or their young family, “Like I told Tony, I thought Kate was dead, blew up in Africa while doing her job. Surprised the hell out of me when I found her at that school. I didn’t even know Clint was the father of that kid until Stark started to put the pieces together. I was under the impression that the ‘Laura cover’ and the ‘Kate situation’ were two totally different messes that I had to deal with. How the hell was I supposed to know that Clint and Kate were together?”

Nick was right, and Natasha knew it, but she wouldn’t put it into voice. It was a low blow to blame him for the Barton Family’s drama. It had taken Natasha maybe five minutes into her conversation with Nick to realize that she didn’t have to sell him on the reversal plan at all. Director Fury was always prepared for the wipe to be reversed. He knew it would eventually happen, just wanted to reduce the number of casualties that would occur with the process.  “Are we prepared for this?”

He knew she was changing the subject from Clint’s family to the wipe. “Yes, after the shooting, I knew Stark would finalize his reversal program in a hurry. I had Hill speed up getting our people off the streets and somewhere safe.”

“You got that Tony?” Natasha asked as she put her finger to her ear, isolating the comm audio against the beeping of the medical equipment. Stark had been working in his lab for the last three hours.

Tony’s voice came through, _“Yes, I do, we are a ‘go’ on the reversal. The program is syphering now. You and Nick bunker down and be ready. This will either give you back those seven years or liquify your brain. Positive note – either way it goes, memory loss won’t be a problem for much longer.”_

Natasha sent Nick an alarmed expression, “Wait, what?”

Pressing the start icon on his screen, the display came to life running data against the S.H.I.E.L.D server that contained the wiping program. He transferred the screen to his cellphone, so he could be mobile while the system was working, “Too late, program has started. I’ll let you know when the code is generated, should be less than an hour. Cap, how are we with a plan?”

In an authoritarian manner, Steve responded, _“We have at least three teams, more if S.H.I.E.L.D. can thin out into multiple groups. We have the quinjet ready to go once we have a solid lead, and the X-Men have their own transportation.”_

Lifting two large black plastic tubs onto the lab table, Tony started to pack each with Clint and Kate’s mission items. Clint’s kit was just a matter of getting stuff out of Barton’s locker. Tony was impressed with the job he did on Kate’s. For being under such a strict time crunch, he pulled off a miracle. Tony had to speculate a lot but went off her college application as what she was trained in and attempted to design a kit to reflect that. He had Natasha check out the dress Kate was wearing at the party to get an estimate on her size. With minor alternations and added ‘flare’ in the design, Natasha’s old Black Widow uniform transformed into Kate’s. Clint was ambidextrous, but favored his left hand, proven by his decision to wear the wrist guard on the right arm. In contrast, Kate was right handed, so Tony had a wrist guard installed into the design on the left sleeve of the outfit. Knowing that archers prefer their drawing arm to be unrestricted, there wasn’t a right sleeve, the material stopped on the right at the armhole.  

The MIT application from about twenty years ago showed a similar skill set to what Clint had. Tony allowed a moment among all the disorder of his own creation to a certain degree, to wonder about his daughter’s relationship with Barton. What was the deal there? Clint would have already been in S.H.I.E.L.D. years prior to Kate joining up. It seemed odd that a seasoned agent would be paired up with a rookie, so they probably weren’t partners, at least not like Natasha and Clint were. Taking the parallels in the two’s talents, it presented to an outsider as more of a mentor and protégé situation. Tony had to force himself to stop when his thoughts drifted to theorizing about how and why the relationship changed from professional to romantic. Clearing his mind, he returned to the mission, and threw out to Steve, “Want me to meet you there, or will you all come back here?”

“I think it would be best for the Avengers and X-Men to be based out of the school. Their air field can accommodate two crafts on the runway idling. We should meet here and wait for S.H.I.E.L.D. to notify us when they have a hit on the kids.” Steve explained to both the group in the room with him and the people on the line.

Steve’s plan sounded logical Tony agreed, as he shut the second tub closed and signaled for Sam to start moving them to the car. “Alright, Sam and I will head over there. We will stop by the hospital and pick up Clint and Kate.”

Suddenly a new voice, Pepper’s, piped in on the units, _“Tony, you have to get to the courthouse now.”_

Lifting one of the tubs, Tony followed Sam out of the lab. In a strained speech, he asked his fiancé, “I’m busy, what’s going on?”

In a voice that had a hint of panic in it Pepper described the seriousness of the newest development, _“Bishop woke a judge up.”_

_“Bishop, that’s Kate’s father isn’t it?”_ Rhodes asked from where he stood next to Steve in Professor Xavier’s office. He and Sam had already been gassed when Ross explained Bishop’s role, so they were playing catch up now.

Speaking between breaths as he carried the very heavy tub full of archers’ equipment out of the compound to the waiting car, “Her step-father technically. Pepper are you serious?”

_“The Stark Industries lawyers just called me. They believe that the judge is going to grant it because Derek is Kate’s father on record and he is contesting your DNA results since it wasn’t run through a reputable lab.”_ She said through gritted teeth knowing that Tony would be more upset by the criticism of his lab results then the court case.

Throwing the tub into the back of the SUV with more force than needed, Tony endorsed his own work, “I ran it, are they seriously going to doubt Stark Industries equipment and results?”

Pepper tried to keep calm and clear as she explained the legal dilemma, _“Yes they are, when the Stark who ran it has an obvious bias towards the results. Just get over here and pick me up. Maybe we can convince them to continue it.”_

Tony threw his head back in defeat and looked at Sam who, like everyone else, was also on the line and listening to the conversation, “Kate and Clint will be fine by sun up.” Checking his watch, it was almost three o’clock. “In fact, they are fine now, just keeping them sedated until I finish my program. Let Bishop waste the court’s time.”

_Pepper demanded Tony’s full attention, “Listen to me, if Derek wins, they are going to have police over here demanding that the Professor hands over Cooper and Charlie before sun up. Then we are going to be looking for four kids_!”

Fury’s strict voice took over the conversation and broke down the situation, _“Stark, I can guarantee you that Bishop has people waiting outside the campus gates to go as soon as that order is signed.  If Derek gets those kids, we may never find Cooper and Charlie. They hid Ross already, HYDRA knows how to get around Xavier’s ability to find them.”_

“Alright, I got you.” Tony closed his eyes to think, this was a case of one step forward, two steps back. He was so close to the wipe being undone, and now this. “Sam, run upstairs and grab Clint’s suit. He’s a slob so it should be on his bedroom floor. Make sure to get a dress shirt and tie as well. Pepper, there is a woman there at the school, her name is Storm, she’s a friend of Kate’s. Ask her to go to Kate’s house and find Kate a court outfit. Have her bring it to the hospital. Then I need you to ask for a car from the Professor and go over to the courthouse now and try to delay until we can get there.”

_“Why? What are you going to do?”_ Pepper asked.

Slamming the back shut he got into the driver’s seat waiting for Sam to join him in the car.  “Just you get to the courthouse and stall.” In record time Sam was back and getting in with a bag Tony assumed held the suit. Pulling the car around the front of the compound and traveling down the driveway to the road, Tony tapped a few times on his cell phone and set it up for hands free, allowing the phone conversation to take place over the car’s stereo system. After a few rings the phone was answered. Not allowing time for the customary greetings, Tony got straight to the point, “Hey Dr. McCoy, change of plans, please notify Dr. Cho, we need them up now.”

The doctor questioned, “Is the wipe reversed? I didn’t see any change in Kate’s vitals.”

Impatiently, Tony stated as he pulled onto the road and slammed his foot down on the accelerator, “I’m getting around to it. Hoping I can get it done shortly, but they have a court date to make an appearance at like ten minutes ago. Kate’s’ father has asked the courts for guardianship of Charlie and Cooper. We need the parents to show up and prove that there isn’t a need for anything like that.”

“It will take at least a half an hour to bring both of them out of the anesthesia. It’s not an off and on switch you know. Even after they wake up it can take hours to be fully clearheaded.”

Hitting his hands on the stirring wheel in rage at the situation, not the doctor, Tony shouted, “Then shoot them up with adrenaline. I don’t care, get them up and moving.”

Understanding that Tony’s remarks were not directed at him, Hank comprehended the gravity of the request and suggested, “I can give them a low dose of Ritalin, studies have shown it can bring a person out of anesthesia almost immediately. The recovery time is cut from hours to minutes.”

Calming himself down Tony said, “Sounds like a plan. Please get it started. Storm is bringing clothes for Kate, and I’m coming with Clint’s”. He disconnected the call and let out a sigh.

Throwing the phone to Sam, Tony instructed, “What does the screen show, I’ll walk you through it.”

Sam caught the phone and described the screen, “Uh, there are six boxes, all outlined in red.”

Nodding at the description Tony explained the importance of it, “That’s good. My program found out that the code is six characters long. Now it is trying to figure out which six characters the code is. We are close.”

“One of the boxes is now green.” Sam exclaimed in a voice that was both excitement and panic.

Keeping his eyes on the road as he passed a car, Tony requested further details, “Is it the first one? The furthest box on the left?”

Sam looked to Tony to confirm, “Yes.”

“Great, the first character has been detected.” Tony said as he turned onto the road leading to the hospital, “Natasha where are you and Fury?”

“Clint’s room.” Natasha answered watching as the doctor worked on Clint, “Dr. Cho just injected something into the IV.”

Amazingly with everything going on Tony posed questions that to everyone else were completely off point, but highly relevant to him, “Good, two questions for you, is he wearing pants and is Storm there yet?”

Exchanging a confused look with Nick over the questions, Natasha responded, “Storm is with Kate now and who is the ‘he’ you are talking about wearing pants?”

“How did Storm already get there?” Sam asked, they were making record time getting to the hospital and had a good head start on her.

“Mutant powers?” Tony offered up as a possible explanation, then returned to his instructions, “Natasha, I would hope Fury is, if not take a picture. But I am referring to Clint. The reversal is about to happen. I would strongly suggest he have more than just a hospital gown on when he gets his memories back. It’s doubtful he is going to stay in the bed.”

“Yeah, he is going to want to get into someone else’s.” Sam contributed, cracking himself up in the process.

Slamming the brakes so hard that Sam was propelled forward, Tony promised as he started to drive again, “I will crash this car, I swear to you, just keep talking like that.”

Massaging his neck from the abrupt stop, Sam apologized, “Sorry, two green boxes.”

Breaking again, only this time it was to turn into the hospital, Tony informed all on the comm link, “We are pulling in front of the hospital now.”

~~~

“’Tasha?” Clint asked as he blinked trying to focus his eyes. He heard her voice and assumed the red blob next to him was the abstract outline of his best friend.

Being told he was alright by medical personnel was not enough for Natasha to relax but seeing him actually open his eyes and speak to her did, “Hey look who decided to grace us with his presence.”

Recalling the events from earlier hours Clint summarized, “I was shot…by Ross.”

“Can’t get nothing past you.” Natasha couldn’t help but smile at him.

Clint lifted his hand and placed it on his abdomen where he remembered the gun being pressed against. Surprised not to find any medical dressing on the area and a lack of pain when he applied pressure to his stomach, he quickly concluded, “Cho again?”

“Yup, she Frankensteined your ass again.” Natasha told him then beat him to his next question, “Ross is still at large.”

With his head now clear from the drug’s influence, Clint was able to slip back into ‘agent mode’ and replayed his conversation with the hopefully former Secretary of State, “The things he said, it’s not just him Nat. We got to get moving. How is Kate?”

Clint was attempting to get up from the bed, and there wasn’t any medical reason for him not to be up, but with the reversal moments away it was best for him to stay put. Natasha placed her hand on his arm, “Hey, hang on for a minute. Tony is bringing you some clothes, He will be here in a second.”

Realizing that clothes would be a good idea before he went walking around into other patients’ rooms, he caught that Natasha hadn’t answered his last question, “Kate? How is she?”

Natasha said assuring, as she handed him a cup of water, “She is fine, also won a trip to the cradle.”

Gratefully taking the cup and draining it in one gulp, he followed up, “Where is she?”

Natasha moved her head to the right, “Next room over, possibly getting dressed also.” Clint started to get up again, this time Natasha was ready for it, and got him by both shoulders holding him down in his seated position on the side of the bed. “She is fine, you got the worst of it and look how well you’re doing. You need to stay here for a bit. At least until Tony gets here with your pants. He is about to undo the wipe, so we just need to hang tight until then.”

“He’s really going to do it?” Nothing less than a guarantee about the reversal was going to keep Clint in the hospital room for a minute longer. There was too much that needed to be done for him to be wasting time in here.

Tony appeared right on cue in the room’s entrance, “I said I would, didn’t I?” Throwing a garment bag at Clint, “Here, put it on, we’re running out of time.”

Sam appeared behind Tony holding a cellphone in front of him, “Three boxes are green.”

Tony started to clap his hands in an effort to get everyone moving, “Ok people, we are half way there.” Pointing to the patient’s bathroom Tony instructed, “Clint put the suit on.”

Holding the garment bag out, Clint questioned the unusual attire for the early morning hours, “A suit? What exactly went down while I was out?” Doing a quick recap, he thought about how he had been wearing a suit when he was shot. Clint rationalized that the suit in the bag was probably the one from his meeting with the Professor and Doctor McCoy from two days ago. Odds are the suit he was wearing during the shooting was already in the trash, due to the fresh holes that had been put in it.

“A lot, but I am going to withhold that information right now.” “The wipe is reversing soon. I don’t know how it is going to affect everyone, so I don’t want any of your vitals to increase beforehand and adding more problems onto our growing list.”

The look that Clint sent to Tony made the Ironman think for a brief moment that his instructions were not clear, then Clint probed, “And you think me knowing that something bad happened, but not what exactly, will keep me calm.”

“Four boxes.” Sam alerted the room.

Time was running out, once they had six boxes, a three-minute window to commence the reversal would start counting down. Nick had his people safe, now it was Tony’s turn. “I would like to think after all of this I have earned the right to say, ‘trust me’. Have I Clint?”

Clint had to let that request sink in. Tony was the reason this all had started in the first place, and as a result, his children were beyond traumatized. However, the man was also the reason why Clint would be in mere moments receiving all of his lost memories of a forgotten life and family. Not to mention gaining a brand-new kid to screw up. The actions of Stark during these last couple of days did earn the archer’s trust, “Yeah, alright.”

“Just hurry up, go change and get back into bed please.” Tony again requested, and this time Clint complied. Once Clint shut the door to the bathroom, Tony directed Natasha and Nick, “Natasha, you and Fury keep watch and stay safe. Nick, you may want to give Hill a heads up that we are close. I’m going to go check on Kate.”

~~~

Tony walked into Kate’s room to see that she was sitting on the bed putting her black heels from last night back on. Storm had picked out a black shirt and gray pencil skirt for Kate to wear to court. There was a matching gray jacket laying on the bed beside her. Chuckling to himself as he thought how cute it was that they matched. He had brought a gray suit for Clint as well, but he had a light blue dress shirt to go under the jacket.

Storm and Dr. McCoy were in the room with her. Storm was texting on her phone. Tony could only assume that she was conversing with one of the X-Men. The requests for updates on Kate’s condition were doubtlessly blowing up her phone. Hank’s attention was focused completely on one of the monitors in the room. He was recording information into a notebook, a little ‘old school’ for Tony’s liking. Kate wasn’t connected to any of the numerous medical devices in the room, probably disconnected to allow her to dress. It was safe to guess that Dr. McCoy was making notes of Kate’s vitals from her being under both physical and emotional strain to add to her medical file back at the school.

“Can you hand me my purse please?” Kate requested from Storm, while she kept her attention fixed on her shoes.

Sliding her phone into her back pants pocket, Storm moved over to the counter that was against the wall, “Your purse or clutch, because I have both over here.”

Standing up and pulling her skirt down as she flattened out the creases with her hands, Kate specified, “The clutch from last night please, there something in it I want.” Storm handed the small bag to her. Reaching for the purse Kate saw that Tony was standing in the doorway. “Good morning Tony.”

He walked in accepting the greeting as an invitation to enter, “Kate, my program is just about done processing the code for the undoing of the wipe. I just wanted to check in and make sure you were ready.”

Pulling the envelope out of the purse that Tony recognized as Cooper’s letter to her, Hank motioned for Kate to lay down on the bed. Kate silently submitted and as she did so, opened the envelope. Looking and speaking to Tony as she did so, “I think I am as ready as a person can be for such an event.”

Tony was thankful she wasn’t questioning him as to why she had to wear a suit at 4:00 in the morning. Odds were that as a teacher, Kate was used to being in business casual attire early in the day. That or Storm and McCoy told her about Charlie and Cooper. Kate’s body language didn’t give anything away, so Tony mentally scratched her knowing about the court case out. “Should be any time now, so Dr. McCoy, if you want to go ahead and hook her back up to the equipment, now would be the time.”

Hank adjusted the bed, so that Kate was more sitting up than laying down. She pulled the letter out of the envelope, then moved her right arm towards Hank, to wrap the blood pressure cuff around her forearm. Flicking her left hand a few times, she was able to get the letter to unfold one handedly.

_Dear Mom,_

_This is Cooper, your son. I know we haven’t seen each other in a long time, and I hope to see you soon. I wanted to come tonight and see you in person, but dad thought it wasn’t a good idea. It was suggested that I write you this letter. I really don’t know what to write, just that I miss you._

_Love,_

_Cooper_

Kate stared at the letter hypnotized by the meaning of the message. Her son loved her and wanted to see her. Kate’s little boy, her first baby wanted his mom back. Storm had filled Kate in that Cooper and most of the Avengers were at the school planning for something. The clearing of a throat brought Kate out of her daze and she turned to Tony, the source of the sound.

“You know he is a good kid. Cooper, I mean, he is genuinely a good kid.” Tony informed her coming further into the room.

“Really?” Kate asked as she patted the side of her bed for Tony to sit down.

_“Five boxes, one to go.”_ Sam interrupted through the comms.

Taking Kate up on the offer, Tony sat, if only for a minute before he had to leave to initiate the reversal.  “Yeah, he cares about people. He takes care of those that are important to him.” The words sounded familiar to Tony. Thinking back, he remembered saying those exact same sentiments about Clint. Tony poked the device in his ear to mute his end of the conversation from others hearing it, “He’s like his dad, a good boy who will be a great man.”

Kate put a hand on top of Tony’s, which was on his leg. “Speaking of his father, Storm told me Clint was alright. Have you seen him?”

Stunned by such an intimate movement from his daughter Tony told her, struggling to keep his voice sounding relaxed on the topic, “Just came from his room. He’s good. Antsy to get out of here, but he’s good.”

Sam reported, _“Six boxes all green, it’s go time folks. Tony what do I do?”_

Tony took the mute off his comm, “Don’t do anything yet Sam. Meet me in the family waiting room, I don’t want to be near anyone with an implant in case there is electrostatic feedback from the initiation.” Tony turned to where Hank was standing and nodded to him, indicating that it was about to happen. With his available hand Tony placed it on top of Kate’s, making a ‘tower of hands’. “Here we go. I’ll be back when it’s over.”

“Tony.” Kate said as she closed her hand onto his.

Alarmed by the gesture, he responded, “Yes? Is everything alright?”

“It’s not that, I’m fine. I just wanted to say before this happens.” She paused to form her thoughts into words, “I just wanted to say, ‘thank you’. Even if this doesn’t work, ‘thank you’”. Tony didn’t have the words to respond, he just mirrored her gesture by squeezing her hand back and stood up. With a final glance to his daughter, Tony left the hospital room.

~~~

As directed, Tony met Sam in the empty waiting room. Taking the phone back, he was able to see that as Sam said, all six boxes where filled with an asterisk and outlined in green.

Sam asked in an expression thick with concern, knowing what was at stake, “You sure this will work?”

Tony arched an eyebrow and tilted his head, stating, “Only one way to find out.” His index finger floated above the icon on the screen that would begin the undoing of a decade long obstacle for countless people, more if their theory of a HYDRA take-down was correct. A timer was on top in bright yellow, counting down how much time there was left before the entire process would be scrapped. They had one minute and thirty seconds left, “Nat and Nick, and any other S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel that have access to this line, take out your comms. Only come back on after the reversal. You have twenty seconds.” Tony waited until the timer ticked down to one minute and ten seconds, then tapped the icon.

From the waiting room’s open entrance, Sam and Tony could see both Clint and Kate’s doors. So far nothing had happened, there were no sounds coming from either room or commotion from the nurse’s station of concerning readings from either’s vitals. Sharing a worried look with Sam, Tony felt a sense of dread that his program had failed. Waiting another minute, Tony was coming to the painful realization that it hadn’t worked. Putting his phone away, Tony motioned for Sam to leave the room with him. Both men had stepped out into the hallway heading towards Clint’s room when the door flew open. Clint without any notice or words, pushed Tony into Sam to get them out of his way as he ran into Kate’s room.

~~~

Clint pushed the door open without any warning of his arrival. It was if the pounding of his heart and panic in his lungs that started with the explosion at the Sandbox all those years ago had been in hibernation and with the reversal, had resurfaced. He knew she was alive, he had just been speaking to her hours ago, and Natasha had reassured him that she was fine after being shot. The logic in his head was sound, Kate and the baby, Charlie, had survived the explosion. However, he wouldn’t truly believe it until he saw her. Saw her, not just as a teacher at a special school who was supposed to be his wife once upon a time. But saw her as the woman he married, loved and had a family with. The woman he had failed, who he had vowed to ‘always find’, even if at the time he promised that to her it was meant more as a humorous threat. The woman whose assumed death he had witnessed on a mission that had broken him, if only for a few hours before the wipe erased it all.

Once in the room, he slowed down and took in the sight. There she was, laying on the bed with Storm by her side. Hank was writing down some numbers from the monitor stationed next to the bed. When they saw Clint enter, they took their leave. Silently agreeing to give the two some privacy for their reunion.

Waiting until he heard the door shut behind him Clint approached the bed, “Katie-Kate”

Kate smiled at the old nickname that he knew she hated, “Hey Hawkeye”

Feeling all the emotions from the aftermath of the Sandbox mission wash over him, Clint confessed all in one breath, “I am so sorry.”

Kate shook her head, “You have nothing to apologize for.” She then held out her hand to him.

Clint grabbed her hand like it was his very own life line. He sat down in the spot that Tony had previously vacated. Leaning down to embrace and kiss his wife, Clint half closed his eyes as his lips were met with cold hard metal. Opening his eyes, he saw the familiar gold and hot-rod red colored palm of the iron man suit. Looking over to the person standing next to the bed he saw Tony, “Yeah, we don’t have time for that now, or really at any time in my presence. Things got a whole lot worst while you two were sleeping.”

Standing up Clint asked, “Are you going to tell me now what the hell happened?”

Retracting the glove back into the confines of the storage bracelet Tony explained, “Derek Bishop,” Kate stiffened up at the mention of the name, “is trying to get the courts to grant him Cooper and Charlie”. Taking a deep lungful of air, Tony added, “Then there is Laura, she got Nate and Lila while you two were bleeding out in the school’s hallway.”

Eyes widen in fear over the night’s activities, Clint exclaimed, “What? How did any of that happen?”

“Who are Nate and Lila?” Kate inquired as she forced her way into the conversation. She had already been told about this Laura who was a HYDRA agent pretending to be Clint’s wife and Cooper’s mother, but the two other names were unfamiliar.

Sending Tony a glare that could cut through vibranium at his bad timing, Clint turned back to Kate and started, “So, what happened was when Laura…”

Shaking his head at Clint’s pitiful attempt of explaining his ‘second family’, Tony summed up the past ten years, “Again, no time for that. Lila and Nate are Clint’s kids with the HYDRA agent Laura, who was pretty much pretending to be you for ten years. Let’s go already.”

Without turning back to his wife, he asked still facing the door Tony exited out of, “I’m going to guess that there is no way in hell you are going to take that as an acceptable answer and feel the need to never question it?”

Sighing, Kate informed Clint, “Not even close, we will talk about this later.”

Under his breath as he turned around to face her, Clint muttered, “I’m sure we will.”

Of course, she heard his comment but chose to ignore it. Kate looked directly into Clint’s eyes, searching for the truth, “But they are your kids?” she asked.

Not breaking the eye contact, Clint confirmed, “Yes, the details aren’t important, but they are my children, and they are in danger.”

Kate nodded, letting that information sink in. The details were very important contrary to Clint’s belief.  Clint had two additional children with a HYDRA agent. As far as her priorities went, that fact was pretty damn high on the list. However, Kate would have to let it drop a few places down to give the necessary attention to the two other problems they were currently experiencing. Derek Bishop’s involvement took over the top space on the list. Derek was a problem from the day Cooper was born, claiming that all he wanted was to be part of his ‘grandson’s’ life. Kate and Clint disagreed with that, and it was the last time she ever saw the man who raised her. While he probably was aware of her second pregnancy with Charlie, he didn’t reach out to Kate at all.

Then there was the problem with this Lila and Nate that needed to be dealt with. They were children in the hands of HYDRA, and she had experienced firsthand the horrors associated with that exact scenario. Clint watched her, willing her to say something, anything in response to the information she had just learned. Taking a deep breath, she spoke in a matter-of-fact manner, “Ok, first things first, let’s go get the kids away from Derek, then find and go after your other two.” Clint looked visually relieved at Kate’s words and as he got up, offered his hands to assist Kate out of the bed. She quickly got out of one of Clint’s holds, so she could grab her purse. He led the way, pulling Kate behind him out of the room and into the hallway.

Both agents were surprised to find that Tony, Sam, Nick, and Natasha were waiting for them in the hallway right outside the door.

Director Fury was the first to speak, and greeted Kate in a formal way, “Agent Bishop, good to see you again.”

Kate wasn’t going to have any of it, “Yeah right. You and I are also going to be having a conversation later. Showing up at the school with some vague ass story and walking away, what’s wrong with you? Just leaving a woman without any memories alone with strangers? Did your mother not raise you right?”

Tony had never witnessed anyone speaking to Director Nick Fury that way. No one in the hall said a word after Kate’s outburst, waiting for Fury to come back at her in a similar fashion. Then a small, thin smile appeared on the Director’s lips, spreading into a wide tooth-showing grin complete with a short chuckle, only to be cut off when Nick said, “Oh, how I have missed your attitude Kate, come here.” Nick stepped forward and embraced the woman. The gesture was shocking to Tony and Sam who had never seen the Director act so warmly to another human being.

Natasha was next to grab Kate into a hug, “I can’t believe it.” She looked Kate up and down, “How did you make it?”

“No clue, guess I was lucky, but somehow we did.” Kate responded.

“This is Sam Wilson.” Natasha introduced as she let go of Kate.

Sam stepped up and shook her offered hand. “It’s good to finally meet you.”

Tony hated to break up the reunion among lost friends, especially since he had never seen most of the group participants this happy before. Most importantly, Kate was happy. Tony may not have been able to give her anything up until this point of her life, but he did give her this. He was the reason she was now by her husband’s side again and reconnecting with old friends and coworkers.

The wipe didn’t have any physical effect on anyone with the implant, but Tony could swear, Nick, Natasha, Clint and Kate all looked like different people, compared to only minutes ago. He wanted to stay in this moment, or at least allow them a few more before the real world came back, but time was a factor. “Hate to cut this short, but we can do this at the school once we sorted out Bishop. Natasha, you, Sam and Nick get a ride back to the school with Hank and Storm. S.H.I.E.L.D. should have already started to receive extraction requests from their deep cover agents, and someone may have seen Laura and the kids, or at least has an idea on where they could be. We need to start formulating a plan and work on the particulars when we have more. Everyone needs to be ready to go as soon as that intel comes in.” Concentrating on his daughter and her husband, “Kate and Clint, you are with me. Pepper and my lawyers can only stall the judge for so long.”


	25. Chapter Twenty-Four ~ A Simple Truth

Chapter Twenty-Four

A Simple Truth

The drive to the courthouse was, for severe lack of a better word, awkward. Tony believed his presence in the car was mostly, if not all, to blame for it. He was positive if he wasn’t there Kate and Clint would be having a long conversation, among other things, which he refused to think about. When the silence got too much to bare Tony finally broke, “So where did you two kids meet? Where did he propose? Where was the wedding?”

“S.H.I.E.L.D., S.H.I.E.L.D., and um…S.H.I.E.L.D.” Clint answered staring out the window from the passenger seat. Kate was busy in the back doing her makeup and hair for her court appearance. Apparently being shot, operated on, and having tissue regenerated played havoc with the skin and hair, or so she said.

Tony conceded, “Not exactly Match.com, but hey, looks like it worked.”

“You proposed in Egypt.” Kate mumbled since she had a hairbrush in her mouth as she was trying to tame her long hair into an updo.

Clint smiled and turned so he was facing Tony and Kate could see half his face, “Oh yeah, but it happened during a mission for S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“That picture I found?” Tony asked thinking about the photograph found within the novel in the apartment.

“Picture?” Kate asked as she moved on from her hair to applying lipstick that was a brownish pink shade.

Clint turned again to address his wife, “You remember, after you said ‘yes’, Phil used the evidence camera to take our picture.” Clint concluded his comment with a soft, yet sad sounding laugh.

Closing the compact she looked to the front of the car, “Good old Phil, how is he?”

“Dead.” Clint somberly answered. “Killed by a god from another world, with my assistance.”

Staring forward out the front window Kate replied, “Oh.” And with that comment the chit-chat in the car ended. Each lost in their own thoughts about how much the world had changed in ten years.

~~~

Tony didn’t know how they got to the courthouse, his brain was elsewhere. Before he knew it, he was pulling into a parking spot and putting the car into park. Without delay everyone jumped out of the car and moved towards the courthouse’s main entrance. It was now five thirty, and the maintenance personnel were arriving for their morning shift. Tony retrieved his phone and scrolled through Pepper’s multiple texts until he finally found the one that told him which courtroom they needed to get to. As they past security, Tony directed Kate and Clint to the second courtroom.

Throwing the doors open with great enthusiasm, Tony announced dramatically, “I object!”, as he entered. The Ironman was trailed by Kate and Clint, who had purposely distanced themselves from Tony after the show he had just put on for the audience of nine people. Pepper was to the right huddled at the defense table with two S.I. lawyers. Derek Bishop was on the left doing the same with his three lawyers at the plaintiff table. The only court officials in the room were a bailiff and court clerk, there was not a judge seated at the moment.

Everyone in the room turned to Stark when he broadcasted his arrival. Pepper excused herself and came down the aisle to meet the newest arrivals and had them follow her to the front calling over her shoulder as she walked, “Tony, we are in recess. There isn’t anything for you to object to.” Then she abruptly stopped and turned to scrutinized him in a low hiss, “This is serious, stop playing around.”

“Nothing to object to other than this whole mess?” He asked being sure to be loud enough for everyone to hear him in his condescending tone. Then he changed to sound more jovial, mentally brushing off Pepper’s ‘dressing down’ comment.  “Look who I brought.” Tony gestured to the couple behind him and locked eyes with Derek Bishop, who seemed less than pleased at their arrival, “The parents, this is over. Bring out the judge.”

The Stark lawyers heard their boss’ directive and moved towards where the clerk was seated off of the bench. Seeing this, Bishop’s team hurried to joined them before any words were spoken out of their earshot. After about a minute of discussion, the clerk disappeared to a room behind the bench. The lawyers went back to their clients to whisper about the recent activities. Kate and Clint sat in the first row behind Pepper and Tony, slightly anxious about not being able to hear what anyone was saying. Clint justified to himself that if the conversation was something they needed to know, Tony would relay the information.  It still didn’t sit well in his stomach, it was their children’s custody that was being discussed, but it was a legal battle technically between Stark and Bishop. Casting a reassuring glance to Kate, he was able to read her mind, ‘this was only the beginning of the mess they had to clean up’.

It was about ten minutes before Judge Morrison entered the courtroom. Everyone rose until he was seated, and it was evident that he looked to not be in the mood for anything either party was about to do. Once seated, the judge opened the file folder in front of him, “We are here at this ungodly hour to discuss the emergency custody issue of minors, Cooper Francis Barton and Charlotte Henrietta Carbonell.”

“Henrietta? You actually gave a child of mine, the middle name Henrietta? That’s… that is just horrible. Like the kid didn’t have enough problems, you saddled her with that name?” Clint whispered to Kate. “Thought we agreed on Lucille Elizabeth.”

Kate didn’t match Clint’s volume in fact she was loud enough for her voice to carry, “Yeah, did you retain that information this entire time, cause I sure as hell didn’t.”

“Excuse me? And who are you two?” The judge demanded.

Clint held his hand up, “Don’t mind us, we are just the parents of the children in question. Sorry to interrupt, please continue.”

The judge looked to the lawyers at Bishop’s table, then to Tony’s attorneys, and back to Derek. Pursing his lips together, Judge Morrison shifted his glare to the plaintiff, “The parents? Mr. Bishop, your petition states that the parents were…” He scanned the motion in front of him for the exact wording, “The parents are medically indisposed for an uncertain amount of time.” Reaching for another sheet of paper, Morrison quickly glanced at it and addressed Tony, while holding the paper up, “Mr. Stark, your order mirrors that motion.” Slamming the paper back onto the hard-wooden surface of the bench, Judge Morrison commanded of the room, “Can someone please explain what is going on and why the court is involved in it?”

The lawyer to Bishop’s right stood up and explained as he walked to the center of the court, “Mr. and Mrs. Barton were involved in an incident late last night; their prognosis was grim.” Looking behind him to where Clint and Kate were, the lawyer returned to the judge, “Their condition obviously improved.”

“Obviously.” The judge repeated, looking not to be amused at all in the events that were unfolding in his courtroom. The last thing he needed at almost six o’clock in the morning after a night of phone calls from Bishop’s attorneys was a pissing match between billionaires regarding children that weren’t even theirs. However, Judge Morrison wasn’t stupid, he knew that the legal teams for these men would pull out all the stops to achieve their employers’ goals, So, he had to do this ‘by the book’, Morrison was too close to retirement to get on the bad side of two of the wealthiest men in the world. Again, speaking to Kate and Clint, he asked, “Mr. and Mrs. Barton, as ridiculous as this may sound, do you have proof for both your identity and relationship to the children?”

Clint stayed where he was seated next to Kate behind the railing looking at the judge like the official had just grown a second head. Proof? He wanted proof that he and Kate were who they said they were, and Cooper and Charlie were their children? Clint didn’t have time for this, at least he currently knew where those two kids were, he still had to find Lila and Nate. Laura could be anywhere now with them, and every second of this insanity was another mile Laura was putting between him and his youngest two.  Clint allowed the frustration and annoyance to enter his voice, there was also the added act of rebellion by refusing to stand when addressing the court, “Proof? Like what? I’m sure I have Cooper’s real birth certificate at the old apartment. I have my license right here with me.” Turning to Kate, “And Charlie, what do you have?”

Kate shifted and put her left elbow on Clint’s right shoulder and cupped her chin on top of her left hand, “I have Charlie’s birth certificate, but you aren’t on it.” She answered to Clint, then looked back to the front of the room to speak to the judge, “In addition to that I also have a driver’s license and a C-Section scar that looked like it was performed by Jack the Ripper. What else do you need?”

“The ‘real birth certificate’ for Cooper Barton is at the old apartment?” Morrison questioned as he jotted down that bit of information onto a legal pad in front of him. Putting the pen down, the man folded his hands and leaned forward in his seat as he continued, “Also, Mr. Barton isn’t on Charlotte Carbonell’s birth certificate. Did I understand that correctly?” Kate hesitantly nodded, not sure where this was going but didn’t say anything, allowing the judge to go on. “And let’s not even discuss why she has a different last name then her parents and older brother.”

Standing up Kate defended her family’s makeup, “Believe it or not, there is a very simple explanation for that.” Morrison inclined his head as an invitation for Kate to go ahead and clarify. Kate squeezed her eyes shut, as if the words she was about to say were physically painful for her, “I forgot Clint was the father until about an hour ago.”

“For the love of God Kate, please stop talking. Just sit down.” Clint begged from behind the face plant he had done in response to her ‘defense’.

“No, no, it’s alright Clint.” She said waving him off without breaking contact with the judge, “I know this sounds crazy sir.”

“You know that, but are still sticking with this story?” Judge Morrison asked in bewilderment.

Understanding she had dug a pretty damn deep hole, Kate tried to get out of it, “See Your Honor, I knew he was the father of Charlotte. I mean, my boss and doctor told me a few days ago. It wasn’t until I got my son’s memories and my implant was reversed that I believed them.”

Pepper turned to Tony and murmured in disbelief, “Tony, she is your daughter.”

Tony knew that she didn’t mean that as a compliment, but had to agree with Pepper, “She is going to get those kids placed as a Ward of the State. I know it.”

“Ma’am are you on drugs?” The judge asked finding no other rationalization for the tale he was being told.

Caught off guard by the offensive question Kate answered honestly, “Probably, but only what the hospital gave me.”

“I know I am going to regret asking this.” Judge Morrison speculated, “But please enlighten the court as to why you were in the hospital. What was the medical indisposition that originally was predicted to keep you both hospitalized for the foreseeable future, that was miraculously cured?”

She had to admit to herself that her approaching this situation with a plan of ‘honesty is the best policy’ was severely backfiring. Kate was fully aware of how irrational she sounded, but it was too late to turn back now. Clearing her throat, she replied, “We were shot.”

Judge Morrison sat there in silence while he absorbed the information. Looking to the right side of the room, then the left, no one was objecting or adding anything, so he had to believe this was the story everyone was going with, the truth or not. “Bailiff, please retrieve the police report from the Barton shooting.”

Tony’s lawyer stood up to aid, “Your Honor, it was filed as an attachment to the Stark petition.”

Morrison shuffled through the documents in front of him until he found the needed report. Reading through the brief, he would occasionally stop and look to Clint and Kate, then back down to continue reading. Judge Morrison was noticeably not believing the connection to the gruesome account of the incident and the two healthy individuals seated in his court room. Once he was done he slowly closed the folder and reclined back in his chair. The drumming of his fingers on the leather armrests echoed throughout the room. Finding his words, the judge readdressed his audience, “As unorthodox as this case is, the court must follow the letter of the law, especially in a situation that has the potential of becoming high profile in the public’s eye. That being said, before me sits two gentlemen, both claiming to be the maternal grandfather of the Barton children seeking guardianship until their parents are well enough to resume their duties. Behind them, sits the parents of the children. Before we proceed even further, does either party doubt the claims of Mr. and Mrs. Barton?” 

One of Bishop’s attorneys stood up, “Mr. Bishop is not disputing that Mr. and Mrs. Barton are the parents of the children.”

Tony countered, “No, he is disputing that I am the father of Kate.”

“Kate?” The judge inquired about the new name that had entered in the discussion. Checking his notes, he realized that they were speaking about the mother of the children. A person, who until this moment was only referred to as ‘Mrs. Barton’.

Kate acknowledged as she raised her left hand up, “That’s me.”

Shaking his head at the madness the situation had become, the judge observed, “You are an adult.”

Kate moved her raised hand to point at Morrison, “I can see why you’re a judge, very observant.”

Deciding to disregard the mother’s comment, he pushed on with his train of thought. In a professional manner, reopening the folder and pulling out two pieces of paper. “I see here that Mr. Bishop has submitted into evidence a birth certificate for a Katherine Elizabeth Bishop that lists him as the father. I also have a DNA test from Mr. Stark, processed through Stark Industries’ medical department, that states he is the father of Katherine.” With clear annoyance, Judge Morrison threw both pieces of paper behind him, “The court doesn’t see the need to debate the paternity of Mrs. Barton. The only scenario that the argument would be entertained here is if I was to proceed with the original petitions, which I am not.” Focusing on Kate and Clint, “Is there any reason you two are unable to take care of your children?”

Clint was about to speak some carefully chosen words, a few which may be four letters, when Bishop’s lawyer beat him to it, “Other than they can’t keep them safe?” The man moved back to the middle of the room, between the two tables. “Your Honor, Mr. Barton has two additional children from an adulterous relationship that his mistress, who may I add is on the most wanted list by a top international intelligence organization, took last night. The children were under the care of Miss. Potts,” The attorney pointed to the blonde seated beside Tony, then eyeballed Clint, “while Mr. Barton went to a party.”

“Oh shit.” Kate said in totally inappropriate amusement at the statement and leaned back to wait for the real show to start.

At the grossly generalized and exaggerated version of the events that brought them all to court that day, Clint and Tony stood up and started to scream their protests. The men were so loud, trying to shout over the other, that specific words could not be heard or understood. Pepper was trying to pull at Tony’s arm to get him to sit while Kate just sat there and watched the scene unfold.

Pepper yelled, winning the shouting match, “Tony, sit down!”

Tony looked down to her, “Pepper I’m not going to stand here while they blame you for what happened to Lila and Nate.”

Bishop’s lawyer, happy with the results of his statement, returned to his seat. The judge banged his gavel repeatedly to stop the disruption. “Everyone will come to order right now. I will have silence in my courtroom, or I will start finding people in contempt!”

The men sat down at the warning, and as they did Kate softly said into Clint’s ear, “You know, there is a simple truth to that statement.”

Clint threw her a look, and shook his head. Very clearly conveying to her with the gesture to not start going down that path right now. Tony’s lawyer stood up to challenge the Bishop team’s narrative, “You’re Honor, it is true that Mr. Barton has two children from outside of his marriage to Katherine Bishop Barton, but we are not here to discuss those particular children or the state of the other relationship. The petition is for the children Charlotte and Cooper.”

“I see.” The judge said as he scanned over the paperwork in front of him, “There is nothing in either petition that states the children in question are in danger at their current placement with their parents. The mother and father are present, and I can see no reason why they can’t continue their parental duties. Is there anything else before I throw this whole case out and go home?” Both sides were quiet. “Well then, case dismissed.” The gavel was once again hit, and the judge left grumbling under his breath how ridiculous the situation was.

Everyone stood as the judge left then sat back down. They all remained seated until all the court officials left the room. Derek was the first person to stand up, unknowingly making himself the target of Clint Barton. Tony watched with a morbid curiosity as Clint rose and approached Bishop. The initial assessment by Tony was that nothing was going to go down between the two, a table separated them, so the odds of anything physically happening were slim. Clint would probably just glare in a threatening style at his step-father-in-law, then walk away.

That theory and all of Tony’s hopes of a quick getaway back to the school were killed when Clint opened his mouth, “I thought I told you when Cooper was born that if I ever saw you again, I would put an arrow through your eyeball. I also recall telling you that if I saw you anywhere near my wife or child I wouldn’t be so nice and jam the arrow somewhere else.”

Kate moved over by Tony and Pepper and confirmed the story, “He did, almost got him kicked out of the hospital.”

Leaning against the railing, being sure to keep the physical barrier of the plaintiff table between them, Derek opposed, “And I thought I told you that same day that you would only bring my daughter heartache and misery. That you didn’t have it in you to be a good husband or father, you would only ruin them. Thirteen years later and who was correct that day?”

Clint was too fast for anyone to even try to stop what was about to happen. Before anyone could register the danger, Clint was over the table and had Derek against the wall with a knife to his throat. Tony suited up instantly, ready to get involved in the situation. “Clint, stop! The police are right outside.” Kate beseeched as she attempted to pull the arm of Clint’s that had the knife away from Bishop’s body.

Tony squeezed his arm that was covered in the Ironman armor between the two men, “Where did the knife even come from?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.” Kate informed as she continued her attempts to disarm Clint.

At that moment the cellphone in Tony’s jacket started to ring. The jacket had been thrown on the table at the beginning of the tussle. “Clint, Clint, listen to me!” Tony screamed to the side of Clint’s face. “This could be a hit on the kids. Pepper take the phone call.” He charged to his fiancé, then back at Clint, “Leave Bishop alone.”

Kate knew how to handle Clint when he was like this, and Tony’s method wasn’t going to get Clint to walk away from a still breathing Derek Bishop. Not after everything he had done to them, and the numerous things that they suspected he did. What Derek tried to do, take away the children, that was personal. In order to balance that, Kate had to give Clint something else that was personal to focus on. “Clint let’s just walk out of here. Leave Derek alone, because that is what he is – alone. He will never touch our family again. So, let’s go,” she repeated, “Cooper and Charlie are waiting for us, and there are too many witnesses here for this.” Kate then went right for Clint’s heart, “Please Clint, I want to see my babies, don’t you?”

Clint kept his eyes on Bishop, memorizing every line on the old man’s face as Kate’s pleads sunk in. With a flick of the wrist, the tip that was pressing against the underside of Bishop’s chin was flipped downward. Clint then passed the knife, handle first over his shoulder to Kate.  Tony was unsure where it went after that. Kate pulled Clint away near Tony, with an unspoken agreement that he would watch Clint. Kate then moved herself so that she was standing in front of her father.

Rubbing his neck where it appeared Clint did cut him, Derek Bishop greeted, “Katherine, you look well considering… everything.”

“Thank you. You on the other hand have aged terribly.”  The truth was that he looked the same he did the last time she saw him; the day Cooper was born. A bit on the heavy side, balding with brown hair around his crown. Kate hadn’t had any exposure to her family since she signed up with S.H.I.E.L.D., then her father shows up out of the blue in the maternity ward of the hospital asking to see her. A moment that was sacred between her husband and first-born child in the afterglow of a successful pregnancy and delivery was ruined by Derek’s arrival. Derek of course had the regular baby gifts, a bouquet of flowers and ‘It’s a boy’ balloons, but neither Kate nor Clint brought that he was just there as a happy grandfather. Quickly words were exchanged between her father and husband that escalated very rapidly. Threats were made on both sides until hospital security got involved.  The situation was completely diffused when Natasha and Phil showed up to visit. Kate to this day didn’t know what happened, blaming the lack of recall on a long delivery, a few stitches, and a hell of a lot of pain killers, but Derek had left the hospital.

Wanting to end this once and for all, Kate threatened, “If I was you, Clint wouldn’t be the one I would be worrying about. I know where all the bodies are hidden. Don’t make me expose it.”

Derek smiled at that, a cold smile that reminded Kate of several unpleasant memories from her childhood, “Don’t play cards you don’t have darling. You already played that hand Katherine and enlighten me on how the past decade has been for you as a result. Mind you, however it was, it was a lot better then what was supposed to happen.”

That was all Clint needed to go after Bishop again, now for the kill. However, this time Tony had seen it coming, and was able to get a decent hold on Clint, with a lot of help from the Ironman suit. Hearing the shuffle occurring behind her, Kate stood her ground, refusing to break off the eye contact with Derek. Every fiber of her being was fighting against reacting to the revelation that her father was probably behind the explosion. Calmly she requested, “Where are the kids?”

Derek sighed and refuted in a scolding pitch, “Shouldn’t you know, you are their mother.”

They didn’t have time for these games, and Kate was losing the ability to remain calm, “Not Cooper and Charlie, where are Lila and…Clint?”

Tony still had a hold of Clint refusing to let him go until he was positive there wouldn’t be another altercation. Clint responded in rage, “Nathaniel.”

Forgetting the argument she was having with Derek, Kate turned around to challenge Clint. “Really you are going to give me shit about Henrietta and you named your boy Nathaniel?”

Tony professed as he was still holding onto a pissed off Barton with dear life, “Is now really the right time for this?”

“You’re right.” Kate confessed, then refocused on Derek, “Where are they?”

Indifferent to the whole ordeal he said, “Don’t care. I had a debt to pay back and I did so in full. What happened afterwards was of no mind to me.” Knowing that Clint would break Tony’s hold at any moment, especially after that comment, Bishop signaled to his legal team that it was time to go.

Kate knew that if Derek had the wanted information, he would be dangling it over their heads. Returning to old games, he would be challenging them and making demands in exchange for bits and pieces of whereabouts of Lila and Nate. That was the only reason he was able to walk out of the courthouse alive. If Kate suspected her father knew even a small amount of the intel to find the kids, she would had released Clint upon him.

Tony watched as Bishop motioned for his team to leave. Before the defeated man passed the rails to the audience section of the courtroom, he turned and locked eyes with Tony. Just like that, he was eighteen years old again. Eleanor had brought Derek with her to tell Tony about their impending marriage. She wanted to tell him before he read it in the papers or heard it from mutual friends. She was only about three months pregnant with Kate at the time and wanted the wedding to happen before a bump was noticeable and questions about her husband not being the father were asked. It wasn’t the best moment of Tony’s life, but he thought he had handled it well. Just pretended that he didn’t care and tried to get them out of his home before he fell apart. When Elly and Derek left that day, Derek had stopped and looked at Tony the same way he was now. It was a look that said, ‘I won’. Back then, it was obvious what Derek had won, Tony’s child. Now, he had no idea what Bishop could possibly be winning. He had put all his chips on this court case, at least the chips they knew about. Waiting until what Tony assumed was enough time for Bishop to vacate the building he released Clint and disarmed the suit. Pushing Clint away from him Tony ordered, “Get a hold of yourself Barton, he’s gone.”

Punching the wall in frustration Clint returned, “Why the hell didn’t you let me go after him Tony? He pretty much just confessed to setting Kate up to die that day. He has to know where Lila and Nate are.”

“Well, he didn’t succeed in killing me, now did he? And as far as him knowing where your children are, I doubt it.  Derek likes to hear himself talk and to have control of the room.  Possessing that information would have given him both, and he said nothing.” Kate explained as she propped herself against the wall Clint was still attacking. She wasn’t reacting to Clint’s behavior which gave Tony the impression that Kate had experience with her husband acting like this.

Pepper reappeared with Tony’s phone pausing for a moment to evaluate the scene and mentally fill in the blanks of what she had missed while on the call, “Guys, that was Steve. They have a lead on the kids.”


	26. Chapter Twenty-Five ~ All of Them

 

Chapter Twenty-Five

All of Them

Since Pepper had driven to the courthouse in her own car, courtesy of the Professor, it made the most sense for Tony to ride back to the campus with her. This would let Kate and Clint drive to the school by themselves in Tony’s car. ‘Let’ may not have been the correct term, since Pepper and Clint demanded the driving arrangements for the purpose of giving each couple the needed time to talk and prepare for what would happen next.

Pepper had been talking for the entire drive about meeting Charlie, and how ‘unusual the child was’, but in a good way. ‘Whatever that meant’, Tony thought to himself. Then she drifted into telling the tale about being there when the girl met her brother for the first time, and Charlie having absolutely zero interest at all in her older sibling. She just kept questioning the adults about her mother’s whereabouts and wanting to go to her. Charlie had only finally acknowledged Cooper when he stated that he was at the hospital before arriving at the school. Then she wouldn’t stop talking to her brother, asking all sorts of questions regarding her mother’s medical situation, and requesting nothing about Clint’s. Pepper used her college ‘Psych 101’ education to deduce that Charlie had not yet understood the significance of Clint to her but would with time and exposure to the man. At first Tony was really interested in it, but as the drive and conversation went on, he became distracted. That didn’t stop Pepper from going on, “You didn’t even introduce me.”

Tony was focused on the deserted road. The back-county road was probably never congested, especially at this time in the morning. He was totally aware that Pepper was talking, and even knew what the topic was, but was not paying any attention to the conversation’s content. Her last comment was said in a tone that caught his awareness, “What?”

In a teasing tone she repeated her statement, “Ah, now we have a dialogue instead of a monologue, welcome to the conversation. I said, you didn’t introduce me to Kate.”

Thinking back to the whole courthouse affair, Tony realized that Pepper was correct. The entire thing happened so quickly that the introduction of his fiancée to his daughter never occurred, “I’m sorry, I didn’t even think of it. A lot of stuff was going on. I will do it all proper-like when we get to the school.”

She wasn’t trying to yell at him, that was all she wanted, a proper introduction to the woman who would become her step-daughter, “Thank you.”

“Do you even see them anymore?” Tony asked looking in the mirror searching for the car that Clint was driving, contorting his body into different positions to gain a better view through the rear-view mirror and keep an eye of the road before him.

Pepper smiled at the paternal protectiveness Tony had quickly developed towards Kate but understood if they had fallen behind there was a good reason for it. “Just keep driving. They will meet us there.”

~~~

“I’m slightly concerned about Secretary Ross’ ability to hide from the Professor’s powers.” Kate disclosed from the passenger’s seat. “I’ve heard of two different cases about other mutants being able to do that, but it was always with the use of technology. One guy made a special room, but Xavier was able to get past it and take him down. Consequentially with the help of the second instance, and he uses a metal helmet to block out the Professor. I think it was the person with the room who gave Magneto the idea on how to do it, but I can’t promise that, not that it matters. I don’t think a human has ever been able to disappear from Xavier completely. That just can’t end well for us”

Taking his eyes off the road temporarily to address Kate with his own question about the prospect of even more enhanced beings’ involvement, and on the opposing side, “Are you thinking it’s another mutant behind all of this?”

“It’s always a possibility.” She said in a casual voice, which gave Clint the feeling that she had experienced something similar to this before, they really needed to talk about what had occurred in the last decade while separated. “Just like there are good and bad humans, it’s the same for mutants. It was one of the reasons the Professor established the school to begin with.”

“Because of this guy with the special helmet, Magma?” He asked trying to wrap his head around the brand-new world he had been exposed to in the recent days.

Keeping her sight on the road she continued in her laidback manner, “Magneto,” she corrected before going on, “Doubtful. Professor Xavier has always said that Magneto shouldn’t be an issue until Charlie is older.” Feeling Clint’s stare on her with that last statement, she turned to him to give some details to settle his nerves, “Apparently, there is a painful history there that Xavier believes would hinder Magneto from taking a little girl from her home just because she’s a mutant. However, once she grows up, he could be a player we need to watch out for.”

“Magneto?” Clint needed a little more than that about a man who could potentially be a threat to his daughter.

Mentally kicking herself for even bringing it up, she went on, “A guy that used to be friends with the Professor. He believes in mutants’ rights, but not like the X-Men do. Magneto feels that the only way to ensure the mutant species survival is to become the dominant race on the planet. It has caused a bit of tension to say the least.”

Sensing that Kate didn’t want to discuss this topic any longer, Clint compromised, “I’m willing to put this on the back burner for the time being, since you are confident he isn’t involved.” Kate nodded her sureness in the matter, “But we are going to have a long talk about this later.”

“Fine by me, just add it to the list. So, moving on, how are Ross and Laura connected?” Kate asked gladly changing the subject, “Any word yet if they were able to find Ross?

 “I’m not sure about either of those questions, I haven’t heard anything from Nick since the hospital.” Clint replied. He had been filling Kate in about Lila and Nate during their drive, before the discussion switched to this Magneto guy. The conversation about the kids wasn’t as bad as he expected. She asked about their age, and interests. Things that a stranger would ask another about their children to keep a conversation going. Not really the questions a wife would have about her husbands’ offspring by another woman. Clint assumed Kate was doing that on purpose trying to keep the peace. He was fully aware there was a storm brewing behind her baby blue eyes, he just hoped it would wait until they found the kids and they were somewhere private. Taking her hint that they should talk about the situation as if it was just another mission, he continued, “I honestly think the missing link is Derek. It sounded like, you know, before he shot us, that Ross was working for Bishop.”

“I can buy that. Derek was the reason I was even on that damn mission.” Kate stated.

Clint understood that reference, in fact, he understood it all now. The difference a few hours can make. Where everything was a mystery yesterday, today he had all the pieces to the puzzle. Bishop was caught with his hand in the cookie jar funneling money to one of HYDRA’s accounts.  It was a dirty money laundering scheme. HYDRA used his publishing company as a way to make their dirty money legit. HYDRA representatives would give Bishop the money and he would bribe a high-ranking government official with it to be awarded government and international contracts. When a contract was fulfilled, Derek would take the money earned. Once he had the clean money, he would pay his employees and hand the rest of it over to HYDRA, keeping a ‘finder’s fee’ of course.

S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t get involved until they were able to track the clean money coming from a dummy corporation account going to the Sandbox. Further investigations revealed that it was being used to finance human experimentation with Banner’s research. After that discovery, both Derek Bishop and the Sandbox became high on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ‘take down’ list. Kate, whose idea of ‘killing time’ was playing with program codes and hacking databases, was the best agent to task with breaking into the HYDRA’s isolated mainframe within the African base. The bonus was that since she was raised by Derek, she also knew her way around Bishop Publishing’s system. The probability that the two systems were similar due to the connection and money transfers were very high. The fact that the mainframe was isolated regrettably meant that someone had to physically be within the base to access it. The mission was designed to give Kate just enough time in the systems room at the HYDRA base to find a solid connection between Bishop and HYDRA. It was unknown at the mission profile briefing prior to deployment to Africa, that a member of the World Security Council was the government official Derek was bribing.  Nick was correct, Kate’s participation in the Sandbox mission was critical to its success, despite Clint’s protests.

Kate silently contemplated her next remark, choosing her words carefully, afraid of the response she would receive. “You know Clint, the only way this ends, is by taking them all out.” She turned to him in the driver’s seat and emphasized, “all of them.”

That was just about all Clint could handle, they had discussed everything but what really needed to be talked about. They had been dancing around the ‘elephant in the room’ too long. This was going to happen, he refused to put off the conversation a moment longer. He didn’t say a word as he pulled the car over on the shoulder in spite of Kate’s objections, “We need to get back and briefed on the kids.”

Putting the car in park Clint adjusted himself in the seat to face Kate, “Are you telling me, among a lot of other things, to kill Laura?”

Kate confirmed his suspicion, “I guess I am.”

Clint looked away, he had thought the same thing, but didn’t allow himself too much time to dwell on the matter. He figured it would be a battlefield decision. If he took her out in the field, he might be able to live with that, he didn’t know if he could in any other setting. What Kate was talking about was planning Laura’s death, the act would now be wholly premeditated.

The past four days had put Clint’s head and heart through utter hell, and he still didn’t know how he truly felt about Laura. He hated her, the HYDRA agent ‘her’ that is. How could he rationally feel any other way?  However, there was still a part of him that remembered the wife and mother Laura. There were holidays, lazy Sunday mornings, and so much more that cause him a rollercoaster of emotions. He had spent ten years loving that woman, creating a family with her, dreaming of a future for them. She was Nate’s mother, hell, she was the only mother Lila ever knew and up until recently, Cooper as well.  If he did what Kate was preparing him for, how could he ever look at his children again without feeling overwhelming guilt over the killing of their mother, no matter who she was or what she had done. Up until the poisoning four days ago, Laura had been nothing but a caring and loving mother to the kids. Maybe his whole concept of the maternal Laura was untrue, and every component of the last ten years was an act.

Kate had known Clint a long time and knew the struggle he was burdened with. She needed to put the situation into perspective for him, give him an outsider’s take on what was at stake.  “Clint, if she is allowed to breathe another breath you will be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life for her. Fearing every minute that she will try to grab them again, and you damn well know it.”

Kate was right, and Clint did know it. The only way any of them would know peace would be with the ending of Laura’s life. She had displayed this past week the extremes she will go to achieve an end. It wasn’t only his life with Nate and Lila to considered, there were others to be concerned about as well, “What about you?”

“What about me?” Kate didn’t understand what he meant by that. She had no issue with taking Laura out, in fact, she would love to be the one to do it. That would have to be Clint’s call though. The only way Kate would take the choice away from him is if he couldn’t do it or was compromised.  As far as killing Derek Bishop went, well, he raised her, and said he loved her. She grew up loving him as well as a daughter does to her step-father. However, he also used her and her inheritance for personal gain and celebrity status in the business and social world. Then blew her and her unborn daughter up, was probably in some twisted way behind the wipe, sent Ross to shoot her and Clint, then tried to take away her children to benefit a terrorist organization. Sleep was not going to be a problem for her after killing either of them. “I wouldn’t mind killing them all from the head of HYDRA to the groundskeeper. Not after what they did to us.”

Smacking both palms against the arm console that separated them, Clint exclaimed, “That’s what I mean, what about us?” Staring straight ahead past Kate, but not focused on anything except calming himself down, he explained, “You just said I would spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for Laura to kidnap the kids or extract her revenge.” He locked in with her eyes, “What will you be doing?”

“What is this, you trying to catch me in a Freudian slip or something?” Kate asked meeting his gaze with the same intensity.  

“Maybe I am.” He confessed as he leaned against the seat and pressed his cheek into the head rest. He was so tired. It wasn’t so much physical, he had gotten some sleep last night due to the sedation, but his body and head screamed to be in bed for a week. He just now needed to know if he would be in that bed alone. “You know this is all because of the wipe, right? This was something that was done to us, and we had no control over it.” Kate was unsure if he was saying it to convince her or himself. “I would never have been with Laura if I remembered you. I would have never put our son through that.”

Taking a deep breath, he continued, “Shit Cooper, he was taken right from the babysitter and given to another woman. God, how did I not know that day I went to Laura at the farm and he refused to let me out of his sight? Damn it, how didn’t I know!” He was screaming now, and Kate recognized that it was at himself. “They killed Simone Kate. She died protecting our son, and he saw it all! He watched as Simone tried to fend off HYDRA. He was so scared. She was just a babysitter, not a spy, but damn she tried to save him.” It was the first time that Clint had allowed himself, except for the brief moment with Cooper, to release everything that had been building up within him. Raining himself back in at his own stupidity, he pleaded, “I would have never gone to her, please tell me you know that.  I need to know where we stand Kate, I need to know what happens to our family and if HYDRA won.”

The memory of HYDRA attacking Simone’s apartment as she shielded Cooper from the enemy was something that neither Kate nor Clint would ever be able to forget. The only saving grace in that mess was that the Professor had blocked the recall from their son. “Like you said, we didn’t have any control over that. What happened to Simone,” She had to swallow her emotion to continue, “was horrible, and she didn’t deserve that. Clint, none of us deserved what went down, especially Simone and Cooper. She was a good friend and she loved our boy as if he was her own.”  Kate looked down to her folded hands and addressed the root of the problem, “And as far as your other domestic affairs go, the truth is that you did go to another woman, because of the wipe or not, you had an entire life with her. You loved her Clint, I think that is what hurts me the most in all of this, you loved her.” Lifting her head, she looked off in the front window into the distance, “Even if I could get past all that, there will be two reminders of it running around.”

Clint stopped her right there, he didn’t know why he said what he said, perhaps it was because he thought Kate was accusing him of betraying her and their family. Maybe it was that she was confirming his worst fears that she wouldn’t be able to handle the upbringing of the children of a HYDRA agent, who took her spot in her very own family. The best educated guess was a mixture of the two, but he regretted the words as soon as he said them, “And where were you for ten-years? Living in a nunnery?”

Kate took a deep breath in and slowly exhaled. He had interrupted her before she got to her main point. She counted to ten in her head to prevent herself from yelling something that she wouldn’t be able to take back. One of them had to keep a leveled head, and as usual that responsibility fell to Kate. Satisfied that she was in check of her emotions, she replied, “For the past ten years, I was at a school with a group of extraordinary people, that kept our child and myself alive and safe. Everyday waking up and praying that today wasn’t the day that the medication stopped working and I would leave Charlie alone in the world.”  Kate had known Clint long enough to know which words would hurt and which would make her point. She had carefully picked a combination. Her goal was to make her point so clear, it hurt. Forcing Clint to meet her eyes, she finished her previous comment, “I said they would be reminders of what happened, not that I couldn’t do it. They are children. They are innocent in all of this, and I will be damned if anyone calls me a hypocrite for holding a child to the sins of their parents.”

If Clint didn’t already feel bad about what he said, Kate’s response made him feel a hell of a lot worse. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” He would have said a whole lot more, but Kate had heard enough and leaned over and kissed him. All of a sudden, the desire kept dormant by ten years of separation consumed them both. Both wrestled out of their suit jackets between kisses and threw the garments into the back seat. Clint was reaching under his seat to push it back and recline, pulling Kate towards him. It took a bit of adjusting but ultimately, he had Kate straddling his lap.  Hands rediscovered aspects of the other long forgotten. Clint was pushing up her skirt when Kate was the first to come to her senses before it was too late. Between heavy breathing, and a lot of other heavy stuff, she was able to get out, “Clint, the kids. We got to get to the campus for the briefing.”

Clint didn’t have any intentions of stopping, “Vision says I only need thirty seconds.”

Pulling her head away, Kate looked at Clint with a confused expression, “Yeah, well you can tell whoever Vision is, that I need more than that. Let’s go.”

Forcing himself to allow Kate to pull away from him and return to her seat, Clint settled himself proper in the driver’s seat, and took a few calming breaths to get everything under control. “Yeah, the kids.” Clint repeated, as he shifted the car into drive and pulled back onto the road. The rest of the ride was done in total silence.

~~~

“Where the hell are they?” Tony exclaimed as he paced the entrance to the school. He and Pepper had arrived five minutes ago. When they all had left the courthouse, Clint was on his ass trying to get Tony to drive faster. Now here they were with an obvious far distance between the two parties. “If they stopped to do what I think they did, I swear I am going to neuter Barton myself.”

Steve and Natasha along with Pepper stood watch with Tony. Steve had been busy going over the details of the information that Hill called in and needed to get some fresh air. Wanda and Vision had shown up about an hour ago, and Professor Xavier had called a break in the mission development so that he could take Wanda into his office to talk. Wanda, who was understandably alert about strangers had asked Vision to accompany her.  

“Get your mind out of the gutter.” Natasha said in the defense of her best friend and his wife. However, Tony’s presumption of the Bartons’ activities weren’t totally off the mark, pun intended. Kate and Clint were known for always finding the time to get a ‘quickie’ in before a mission. It had become a joke among agents who knew the couple. Hell, that was the reason that there even was a Cooper and Charlie. The pregnancy announcements for each came roughly two months after missions that had a grim survival prediction for the strike teams.  Lying through her teeth, Natasha followed up with, “They’ll be here. Probably just got stuck in traffic.”

“It’s a back road in the middle of nowhere. There isn’t any traffic, not even a stop sign.” Tony was going to continue on but was stopped by the ringing of his phone. Fishing it out, he didn’t even check the number before answering, assuming it was Clint, “Yup?”

“You were supposed to call me in the morning. You promised.” The voice belonging to Charlie chastised.

Refusing to be scolded at by his ten-year-old granddaughter, Tony overlooked the comment, “Good morning princess, did you sleep alright?” He informed the group, “It’s Charlie.”

“No, I did not. I want to go to the hospital and see my mom.” The child was definitely a Stark, no small talk, straight to business.

In a sweet but very patronizing voice to anyone who knew him, Tony explained, “Your mom and dad are on the way here. Should be pulling up any minute now.”

“Here?” The girl asked waiting for an explanation on the location Tony was speaking of.

Stepping in front of the school, Tony looked up to the windows. He used logic to guess which set of windows led to Kate’s room, “The school, I’m outside by the front door waiting for them.”

His guess was correct, because the curtains of the window selected parted, and Charlie’s face appeared through it. Tony wasn’t able to get a good look at her, but her voice sounded a little more uplifting once she saw him, “I will be there in a minute. Goodbye Tony Stark.”

“It’s grandpapa.” Tony corrected but the call was disconnected before he could get it out. Looking to his audience, “I am starting to get the impression she is doing that on purpose.”

Natasha was confused, but it was Clint’s kid, so it wasn’t as if that statement had never been used against one of the Barton children, “Doing what?”

“Calling me Tony Stark, not Mr. Stark, not Tony, not even gramps.”

True to her word, Charlie appeared a moment later still in her pajamas with Cooper trailing slowly behind. Tony supposed that the zombie-like motions was an effect of the medication given to him at the hospital. Charlie even walked like Clint, with a purpose. He knew that Natasha recognized it as well from the tiny hint of a smile on her face. Charlie used her thumb to point over her shoulder at Cooper, “He followed me down here.” She said offhandedly as if her brother’s presence needed an explanation to the group. Pepper told Tony on the car ride there that Kate had a set of connecting rooms to accommodate her and Charlie when they needed to be in residence at the school. Since Charlie refused to leave her mother’s bed last night, they let Cooper sleep in Charlie’s room, with Pepper and Storm keeping watch until they got called away to the hospital and courthouse. Then Logan took over the guard duties, thankful to have a purpose since the trail on Ross had gone cold.  

Pepper had already met the girl briefly before Charlie finally went to sleep. However, it was Natasha’s first time seeing the little girl that she helped paint a nursery for and felt kicking in her mother’s stomach all those years ago. Steve was even caught off guard by the child’s demanding presence and authoritarian manner.

Cooper was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and wearing the clothes from the hospital still. Tony felt bad for the boy and wanted Charlie to not be so…like himself. “You know he is your brother right, be nice.”

Cooper remembered a time when he begged his dad to see the Avengers, but now was getting used to seeing them often. The novelty was wearing off. He was starting to associate the group with turmoil, and just wanted it all to be over. Cooper needed to go back to a normal life with his family, whatever that was. Speaking to no one in particular, Cooper stated, “Charlie said they were coming.”

Tony was the one to speak up, “Yes they are, and guess what?” Cooper looked at him with a tired face, so Tony continued, “They remember everything.”

Cooper’s eyes widen and broke out in a huge smile, “You undid the wipe? My mom remembers me? Thank you grandpapa!” Cooper ran over to Tony and hugged him.  

Returning the hug, Tony look down the driveway, “There they are, finally.”

The black SUV was slowly making its way down the dirt driveway, then suddenly it accelerated, causing a massive dirt cloud to kick up and coat everything and everyone. At first Tony was upset by this action, now he had to get the car detailed. Then realized that Clint had probably sped up when he saw his children standing out front. One child that been gassed in the last twelve hours, and another he had never laid eyes upon. Clint pulled the car in front of the school and yanked out the key with one leg already out the door. Kate bolted out of the passenger side and went up the first two steps, holding back a sob that was invading her vocal cords. She was able to get out one word before the noise escaped, “Cooper.”

Cooper just stood there staring at his mother, Tony gently pushed the child forward, “Go on now, go say ‘hi’ to your mom.”

Kate met her son half way and cupped his face in her hands, memorizing his face and comparing it to his infant one. “I can’t believe it. What happened to my baby boy?” She pulled the child into her arms and buried her face into the top of his head, breathing in his scent, allowing her son to invade all her senses.  Cooper was unable to say anything, so overwhelmed at the time, he just let his mom hold him. They would have time for words later, they would be a family later.

“He grew up, and don’t worry, he’s not done yet.” Clint called as he rounded the car and took in the touching moment. Memories that were now intertwined of his point of view and Cooper’s, danced in front of his eyes. The moments of Cooper’s life that he had shared with Kate, his birth, first smile, first steps, and so much more. Clint couldn’t believe that he was there for all the milestones.  It probably had something to do with living in the city and not an isolated farmhouse out in middle America. Now seeing Kate and Cooper together it was hard to believe there was ever another woman in her place. Natasha caught something when she saw Clint and went down to greet him, or so that is what she made it look like she was doing.

When she got to Clint, she pulled him back to the driver’s side. Clint went along with it and leaned over like she was helping him to get something out of the car, but instead whisper to him, “You’re wearing lipstick, and Kate isn’t.” Pulling his suit jacket from the back that he had earlier thrown while he was getting reacquainted with Kate. He wiped the inside of the sleeve against his lips until Natasha gave him a ‘thumbs up’. Natasha grabbed the jacket from him along with Kate’s which was discarded for a similar reason, and her purse. Walking back up the steps, she returned to her space next to Steve, and saw that Pepper and Tony were staring at her. “I thought their hands would be full reuniting with the kids.” She offered as an explanation for her actions. They seemed to buy it because without any follow up, both went back to watching the scene below.

While Kate’s sight went directly to Cooper, Clint’s lined up to the small girl standing barefoot next to Tony. Both she and Tony were standing the same way, arms crossed across the chest and shifting their weight to the right hip with the left poking out acting like Clint had kept them waiting for an hour. The sight was downright hilarious. “And you must be Charlie.”

Charlie moved closer to the steps that Clint was standing at the bottom of.  It was clear to everyone she was wary of the man but was trying to hide it. She knew who he was supposed to be. However, being brought up in the strict mantra of ‘stranger danger’, she was cautious, but brave. “I am, are you Clint Barton?” she called down loudly, as if the distance between them was a half mile, not less than a hundred feet and six steps.

Repeating her answer, Clint replied, “I am.” She was beautiful, a miniature of her mom with a bit of himself here and there. Clint just wanted to hold her and never let her go. He wanted to apologize for the life she and her mother have had to endure without him. Wanted to promise that nothing bad would happen to them ever again. However, Clint knew the world they lived in, and knew that such promises were bound to be broken. He needed to be Agent Barton, Hawkeye right now, he had to reunite his entire family. Then the father in him took over, “Where are your shoes Charlotte? It’s cold out here.”

Charlie looked down at her feet, apparently not noticing the lack of footwear in her rush to get outside. Suddenly, there was a pair of shoes on the top step about two feet away from her. Without a word she sat down on the top step and reached for the shoes to put them on. Clint watched in fascination. He had been told what the child could do, but really didn’t believe it until then. “That is going to take some time to get used to.”

With her shoes on Charlie descended the stairs until she was next to Cooper who was still in a long-delayed hug and talk with his mom. Without notice of the intimate moment she was intruding upon, she interrupted her mom and brother’s conversation, “Are you hurt?”

Clint moved next to Kate, he wanted to bond, if only shortly before the mission, with his daughter, and guarantee that Cooper was alright after the gas attack last night. Since Charlie and Cooper wanted their mother right now, standing next to Kate was his only option.  Clint got down to Charlie’s level, the girl urgently grasped her mom’s hand in response to his movement, Clint would need to work on gaining his child’s trust, “Not anymore. How are you guys doing? Cooper, feeling alright?”

Kate released the boy, so he could go to his father, Charlie immediately took up the vacated spot in her mother’s arms. “I’m fine dad, the doctor gave me some medicine. Grandpapa calls them ‘calm the hell down pills.”

“Grandpapa?” Kate asked with a smirk.

Returning to an upright position since to speak to Cooper or Kate, Clint didn’t need to kneel, “Tony has requested that to be the name the children refer to him as.” Calling up the steps to the waiting group Clint questioned, “Why does he have medication?”

Pepper had been recording the meeting on her cellphone, thinking that it would be something to look back on for years to come. Tony was standing behind her watching and directing how to get the best shot. Without losing focus on the phone’s screen, he returned, “Because he’s your kid, and this week has sucked.”

With a sideways glance to Kate, Clint acknowledged, “Fair enough.”

Kate had her arms wrapped around Charlie and was swaying with her, whispering soft reassurances to the girl. Clint was allowing them to talk but was fighting the urge to join in the comforting of his child. He was trying to make out what Kate was saying when Cooper asked his question, “So, it’s all over?”

Having already gotten rid of his suit jacket, Clint was now messing with his tie, pulling it off. The knot of the tie having already been undone in the car. “Not quite, we still have to get your brother and sister… other little sister back.”

Charlie untangled herself from Kate and turned so she could ask her mom, “Cooper has another sister and a brother? Where are they?”

Cooper was establishing his relationship with his new sister which was apparently ‘don’t hold back and be honest’, “HYDRA took them, just like they took you and mom years ago.”

Charlie froze and looked down to her new shoes, when she looked up she was staring right at Clint which got him a good look at the girl’s eyes, and she looked haunted and scared, “Oh, you need to go get them. HYDRA hurts kids.”

Clint looked at his baby girl, but she really wasn’t his baby girl, that title was still held by Lila. If the timeline was correct, Charlie was born within a day of the explosion, Lila was ‘born’ about two weeks later. Charlie was his eldest daughter, and what she had just said stabbed him in the heart. ‘HYDRA hurts kids’ was a phrase that he had never heard an adult, better yet a child, his child, recite. What made it worst was that the child spoke from experience, she had experienced the ‘hurt’ that HYDRA does to kids, and it was scarred into her brain, and now his as well.

The first words uttered to him by Charlie gave Clint more insight into the child then anything Kate, Tony or the X-Men had told him about her. Charlie was damaged, her childhood was stolen from her at birth. She was experimented on in infancy and witnessed her mother’s torture at the hands of HYDRA. In that instance, her abilities were a curse, condemning her to remember every moment in vivid detail. She had never known youthful innocence, only fear of the pain that the outside world could inflict on her and her loved ones. Professor Xavier probably identified this early in Charlie’s life. It was clear now to him that the X-Men and Kate compensated for this travesty by raising her as a little adult, forgoing Charlotte’s childhood and adolescence due to the actions of HYDRA. Perhaps being removed from the school and raised as a normal child with her family by her side would help remedy some of Charlie’s ‘difficulties’.  Again, that was another conversation he would have to have with Kate when everything was over.

Realizing that Charlie was watching him for some type of response, Clint rolled the dice and reached out to take Charlie’s hands in his own. It was the first time he had touched the child and he didn’t know what her reaction would be, but Charlie allowed him to do it. The girl carefully watched his face, unsure what to do. It reminded Clint of a deer being caught in headlights. He knew her instincts were telling her to run but she was unable to move. Not exactly the idiom Clint hoped for as a description of his first meeting with his daughter. Clint looked into her blue, almost gray eyes, his coloring. “Charlotte,” he used her full name to stress the importance of what he was about to tell her, “I’m sorry that HYDRA hurt you. But I am going to spend the rest of my life making it up to you and trying to prevent it from happening again, starting today. Do you believe me?”

Charlie studied the face of the man speaking. She didn’t know why, but something was telling her to trust him. Slowly she nodded that she believed him when he said he would protect her. Charlie looked to her mother, and Kate raised her eyebrows and did a slight signal towards Clint with her head. A motion that was undetected by the group, so subtle that only a child would pick the gesture up as coaching from a parent. Charlie was timid to do what her mother was silently telling her to do, but in the end yielded. She did what no one would have ever expected her to do, the girl moved closer to Clint and hugged him.

If the embrace took him by surprise, Clint didn’t show it. Charlie’s touch was light like a feather, still hesitant. It was clear she was just going through the motions, only doing what she felt she was expected to do. Clint didn’t care why she was doing it, he tightened the hold he had on his daughter, savoring every moment of it. He wanted her to know what a hug from her daddy felt like, a hold that promised protection and love at the same time. Clint wanted her to crave his hugs, the way his other children did when he returned home from a mission. Looking around he saw that Kate had her hands resting on Cooper’s shoulders facing them as they watched the father-daughter moment. When he looked up towards the group he saw that everyone, sans Steve, had their cellphones out taking pictures. 

“We have a briefing to get to.” Steve announced, “The informants are calling in, and we have enough intel to go from now.”

Kate didn’t know the man who was speaking to her, walking up the stairs she extended her hand, “Hi, we haven’t met, I’m Kate. Is there a plan of attack?”

Chiding himself for his lack of manners, his face heated up in embarrassment, “I apologize, I’m Steve Rogers. And yes ma’am, we do. At least two teams with S.H.I.E.L.D. ground and air support. Once we are all in the briefing, we will hear about the location and develop a more specific plan.”

Clint broke the contact with Charlie, “I have to go to work now alright.” The girl again nodded, as Clint brought both children up the stairs with the rest of the group, “You stay with your brother and Ms. Potts.”

“Not to contradict you Clint, but she needs to get dressed, eat breakfast, and go to class.” Kate stated, stressing the last instruction right at Charlie.

“Do I have to go to classes today?” Charlie asked Clint, knowing that she wouldn’t get anywhere with her mother around this issue, but her father was fresh territory to explore. She already had Tony pegged as someone she could play with, while Pepper seemed old fashion and strict.

Clint looked to Kate then back to Charlie, “That’s what your mom said.”

Satisfied that Clint backed her directions, she then spoke to Cooper, “I’m sure we can find you something to change into, then go with Charlie and get something to eat. Once you are done eating you can do as your father said and stay with Ms. Potts.” Hearing herself say it, Kate inquired at Clint, “Who’s Potts?”

Tony remembered his promise to Pepper in the car and grabbed her arm and walked over to Kate, “This is Pepper Potts, my fiancée.”

Kate hid any emotion on her face as she reached out her hand to shake Pepper’s. She had seen the woman in the courtroom seated next to Tony, but just assumed she was part of the legal team. “Nice to meet you. Thank you for looking after the kids.”

“It’s my pleasure, they are wonderful children.” Pepper didn’t know why she was so nervous but was having difficulties concealing it.

Kate smiled, it was an awkward meeting. But she attempted to keep the conversation light, “It’s so sweet for you to lie, at least about Charlie. She is very…energetic.”

“I didn’t really get to spend a lot of time with her last night, but she seemed nice.” Pepper offered before Tony removed her. The conversation was becoming painful to watch.

Steve stepped forward, “Guys, we really got to get going, who knows how long this intel is good for. So, kids, do as you were told and everyone else with me.” With that Tony and Steve walked into the school.

“Is he talking to me?” Charlie asked her parents. Pepper moved to take responsibility for Cooper and Charlie. Keeping her attention on Kate and Clint as Pepper attempted to direct her away Charlie continued to question, “Who does he think he is, telling me what to do?”

Clint clapped his hands together and declared in a sarcastic tone, “That is wonderful! She has her mother’s attitude, that should be loads of fun in a few years.”

Natasha met Clint near the doorway and put her hand on his back, “Loads and loads of fun Clint, because you will have two teenage girls to deal with in a few years.”

That revelation stopped Clint in his tracks. He didn’t even think about that. Lila and Charlie were only two weeks apart. Before he knew it, both of them would be no longer girls, but young women. They would be changing, growing, moody and dating. There was still Cooper to consider as well. In a mere two and a half years he would have three teenagers under his roof, where ever he and Kate decided that roof would be. There was only one way to avoid this disaster, Clint called after Tony, “Hey Stark, next time I get shot, let me die!”

Kate quick with her own response quipped in as she walked past Clint, “Keep that up Hawkeye and you won’t have to wait a few years to experience ‘her mother’s attitude’.”

Clint laughed and followed the group inside, “Yes ma’am.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think about the reunion? Thoughts? Comments and Kudos always loved! - CP


	27. Chapter Twenty-Six ~ Off Script

Chapter Twenty-Six

Off Script

Tony was impressed by the briefing room at the school which he had been led into. While every other room he had been in so far was designed in a traditional motif, this room was modern, sleek and displayed technology that was state of the art. It was possible that it could rival the system at the Avenger’s compound. The walls were covered by a glossy metal, which reflected the ceiling lights, creating an almost unbearably bright setting. Tony assumed the metal casing of the room was probably some sort of protection against eavesdroppers.  Sam, Rhodes, Vision, and Wanda of the Avengers were in there. As were Professor Xavier, Storm, Logan and a man with very interesting glasses on, who was introduced as Scott of the X-Men. Nick Fury and Maria Hill were participating in the meeting via video conference from a helicarrier hovering somewhere unknown.

Logan watched as Tony, Steve, Natasha, Clint and Kate entered. It was the first time he had seen Kate since the shooting.  Making a path to her past the many people in the room, he finally got to the doorway to pull Kate aside, “Are you alright.” He asked placing a hand on her hip. Kate put her hand on his arm and nodded that she was fine. Tony watched the interaction, thankful that Clint was talking to Natasha with his back to the couple. Tony felt suddenly very uncomfortable in the room as he witnessed the interaction. He had to be realistic, of course Kate had relationships over the past decade. As much as he or any father, would love to believe his daughter had never been with anyone, Charlie and Cooper’s existence proved that point untrue. As far as Kate had known prior to the reversal, she was a single mother suffering from memory loss and gamma radiation poisoning, not dead. However, if Tony had to pick someone out of the group that Kate would connect with, it wouldn’t be Logan, that was just…interesting.

Any thoughts going through Tony’s head were cut off when Clint turned around and saw what was going on. The confusion and processing were very clear on his face at the intimate position his wife was in with Logan. Tony found himself stuck to the floor, unable to move in the very awkward situation between his daughter, her husband, and whatever the hell Logan was. How was this going to go down? Luckily before Clint could move over to the couple to question anything about what was happening, Kate parted from the Wolverine to take a seat at the conference table.

Professor Xavier started the meeting, “Assistant Director Hill please explain to those who have just joined us the intel that has been gathered.”

Hill started as requested, “As expected within an hour of the wipe, numerous techniques were used to contact us for extraction and intel reporting.”

Clint was eager to get this show on the road, “Anyone report in on seeing Lila, Nate, or Laura?”

Maria continued, pleased that she was able to provide some positive news to Barton, “Yes, in fact there were many reports regarding them. Agents expressed concern about seeing children within HYDRA, and were quick to call it in. In fact, they were more worried about the kids then their own extraction.”

“Why were they worried?” Storm questioned, the alarm heavy on her face, “Were they harmed?”

“There isn’t anything to lead us to that conclusion. Agents who are aware of what HYDRA is capable of just didn’t like the idea of kids being there.” Nick encouragingly stated.

Rhodes had been there all night and was starting to think that the sleep deprivation was causing him to miss information, “Where is ‘there’?”

“Interesting enough, all the extraction calls are coming in with the same location, a place in Australia. Seems like HYDRA is relocating their people in anticipation of our next move.” Fury said as he and Hill disappeared from the screen and were replaced with a map, a white dot blinked over the area in discussion.

“Isn’t that the Tarantula?” Clint asked getting close to the screen to confirm his guess.

Natasha filled the group in on the location, “The Tarantula. It’s a former weapons base of HYDRA’s out in Western Australia.”

Steve didn’t like the sound of that, it was starting to feel like a dead end, “Former?”

Nick explained the history of the base, “Yes, about twenty years ago, a strike team took it out, but afterwards, the structure still stood. HYDRA decided since S.H.I.E.L.D. had already taken it out once, we wouldn’t go back without a good reason and they were right. The site was in a good location, HYDRA didn’t want it to go to waste. They went onto set up a kind of a retirement community for HYDRA agents there. About five years later, we sent a recon team out to confirm the base’s use. Once we had confirmation that they were using it to house their ailing and discharged agents, we just kept an eye on it. We monitored intel regarding the base, but never touched it again.”

“A HYDRA old folks’ home?” Tony asked reading between the lines.

Shrugging his shoulders, Clint said “Essentially. HYDRA believe it or not, has a pretty damn good pension and retirement package. That is if the agent lived long enough to cash in on it.”

“On the plus side, it’s good to know that HYDRA hasn’t changed their playbook in ten years. They are still using the World War II edition.” Kate offered thankful that the terrorist organization hadn’t really change during her ‘break’ from the job.

The mention of the war caught Steve’s curiosity, “What?”

“It’s common practice in war time, the enemy stores their ammunition near medical facilities knowing that we won’t attack. We tend to value human life on this side and would never risk bombing a hospital. There has never been a strategic gain in attacking the Tarantula again for the same reason. Like the Director said, we always knew what was going on at the base. The place is mostly full of the elderly that require some type of medical assistance or agents that are out of the game now and just want a quiet and safe life.”

Scott concluded, “Like Laura and the kids.”

Pointing to the map that was transferred to the big screen, so Fury and Hill could come back on the monitors, Kate offered, “With this intel, that would be my best guess. It looks like HYDRA is relocating their key personnel to the Tarantula knowing that we won’t strike it. In a strange way it’s the same as running into a church after committing a crime and claiming sanctuary.”

Nick surely had missed Kate. She had a soldier’s brain with the Stark’s intelligence. He could tell that Kate had already figured it all out and was waiting for everyone else’s light bulb to turn on. “So, Laura is key personnel to HYDRA, easy to believe given the amount of intel she must have gathered against S.H.I.E.L.D. in her tenure as a cover.”

Natasha answered in a way that caused the room to believe she wasn’t talking to them. She was just thinking out loud, putting it all together for her own comprehension. “I believe that it is just a coincidence that Laura and the kids are heading that way as well. Laura is probably transferring permanently to the Tarantula. She has done her time with HYDRA and going into retirement with her family now. With two young children, it’s the safest option available to her. She can’t just go off into the sunset, not with everyone here looking for her. She still needs the safety blanket of HYDRA.” Kate moved her head up and down, silently agreeing with Tasha’s take on Laura’s action and motivation.

Scott Summers, also known as Cyclops was the leader of the X-Men in the field and when Xavier wasn’t there, was still coming to terms with who and what Kate was. It was hard to accept that the math teacher was really a super spy and trained assassin. Hearing about it, he could only compare it to a plot of an awful spy comedy. After he was briefed about Kate’s history this morning, he found the time, after he wrapped his brain around it, to speak with Professor Xavier and Hank about developing a training routine for her. While she didn’t possess any mutant abilities herself, she had proven herself many times over the years as a supporter of the cause and would welcome her addition to the team. Scott had spent much of last night well into early morning researching the members of the Avengers, knowing that a team up was looming with the events in the hallway. From his findings, Scott had expected Natasha to know about the various HYDRA bases scattered throughout the world, but Kate’s insight took him by surprise. Skeptically he inquired of the woman who had become like a younger sister to him, “How do you know so much about it?”

Kate replied as if everyone knew her record, “Because I was on the recon team back in the day, to check the place out and make sure it was what our sources said it was. Plus, the Tarantula always had their accounts on a system that was separate from the HYDRA core mainframe, always good for a quarter million here and there.”

Logan may not have had the privilege of knowing Agent Bishop, but he knew Kate and was able to easily enough interpret her statement, “You stole from them.”

Looking insulted by the accusation, she asked, “Is it stealing if you happen to come across stolen money?”

Shooting a glance to Tony and Clint who were both sporting amused expressions from Kate’s response, Steve explained, “Yes, that is still stealing.”

Justifying her actions, she went on, “Hey, S.H.I.E.L.D. has needs. If the funds used to purchase safe houses or bribe a source are traced back to a terrorist organization and we keep our hands clean, all the better.”

The Professor had been silent since the start of the briefing. He had been listening to Kate and was impressed by the woman’s past. Scott’s point of adding her to the roster may be sound. “And no one ever caught on? HYDRA never traced the transfers back to S.H.I.E.L.D.”

Kate responded coolly, the pride in her work apparent, “Nope, I am just that good.”

Sam leaned into Natasha and whispered, “Anyone have any doubts she’s Tony’s kid?” This caused a smile to form on Natasha’s lips. There was a tiny resemblance in appearance between the two, but Kate’s last statement nailed it for her and many others in the room that she was Tony Stark’s daughter.

Steve was ready to go, they had a location and the people to infiltrate the base, but they lacked experience, “So, you have been there and gained access to their systems?”

Kate nodded unsure where this line of questioning was going, “Yes, like fourteen years ago. I don’t see why that’s important. You already have the blueprints, and Tony should be able to disengage the systems.”

She wasn’t saying anything that wasn’t true. However, Steve liked the idea of having a backup in the case something didn’t go as planned. “Suit up.” Steve ordered as he stood up dismissing the meeting, or so he thought.

Clint was fast to question the order, standing on the opposite side of the conference table from Steve, “Steve, I don’t think that is a good idea. She hasn’t been in the field in ten years and her last mission wasn’t exactly perfect.”

While Kate had to admit Clint had a point, she felt the need to point out the inaccuracies in his statement, “My part was. I got the job done, didn’t I? Plus, I can do it. It’s like riding a biker.”

Clint put his head down giving himself a reprieve, keeping his head down he corrected, “A bike. The saying is ‘it’s like riding a bike’.”

Looking to Clint who was still looking at the floor, she countered, “I’ve heard it both ways.”

Clint banged his fist on the table and looked at Kate not caring that they had an audience, “Isn’t this the exact same conversation we had ten years ago? I’m caught in a time loop. I didn’t want you on the Sandbox mission then, and I don’t want you on the Tarantula mission now.”

“You need me on this one Clint. I want to be on this one, if for nothing else then to get the kids and get some closure.” Kate confessed. “These people took seventeen years of our lives Clint, I really would like to hit something.”

Steve saw that Kate’s words resonated with Clint, and he was working on wrapping his mind around the idea, not that he for one second believed that Kate was waiting for permission from Clint to do what she wanted to. Clint just needed a little push to give the idea his blessing, “Clint, Kate will be with us the entire time. If you want, keep her with you and take out targets from a distance.” Clint remained silent, processing the mission and calculating the risks. Finally, he nodded his agreement to the conditions.

Logan didn’t like the idea of teaming up with S.H.I.E.L.D. or any government agency. There was a trust issue there from Logan’s own past. Since the Accords, the Avengers were pretty much also government people. He especially didn’t like them taking point on this mission and now taking one of their people, specially Kate, “I’m not comfortable with that. I would prefer if she is in the fight, it’s next to me.” He scanned the faces in the room, daring anyone to argue with him.

Scott hated to say it, but needed to, “I agree, Logan will ensure her safety.”

“Heard that before.” Clint said under his breath. He had been guilty of saying the same thing years ago and they were all now dealing with the consequences of him failing on following through with that promise. Then something hit him, the way Logan acted last night about Charlie’s behavior, the way he touched Kate, and her reaction in response. Now, him wanting to play the role of protector to her on a mission. It all added up to some sort of relationship that went beyond platonic. Something called his attention, looking to his left he saw Wanda staring at him, she was reading his emotions. She sent a confident smile at him and shook her head, sending a warm feeling his way, telling him what he thought was correct but not an issue. As her projection of emotions hit him, his anxiety and anger lessened. When Wanda knew she had his undivided attention, she flashed images of the two children that they were going to go after through Clint’s mind. She was willing him to focus on the mission, reminding him of his priorities.  

Xavier knew where this argument could possibly lead and decided to end it before it got too far gone, “She is S.H.I.E.L.D., or was. They know what she is capable of, we don’t...” Glancing over to Scott, “yet.”

“What about the children here?” Vision asked seeing a potential problem with the proposed plan.

“What about them?” Storm demanded sounding both offended and protective at the same time about her charges.

Having been programmed to detect tone, Vision recognized that he may have upset the woman, “Apologies ma’am, I am not questioning the security precautions in place here, just the timing. My understanding is that HYDRA wants Charlotte. If everyone is in Australia, however short of a time it may be, it would finally give the organization an opportunity to acquire the child with minimum resistance.”

Tony was milling over that concerning observation and had to concur. The night before they were duped, everyone except for two Avengers were away from the compound, and HYDRA got in. There was no way to guarantee that the same thing would not happen again. A mission of this scale needed everyone, there wasn’t a person to spare to babysit Charlie without any backup. However, a babysitter of sorts was needed on this mission. If they were somehow able to find Nate and Lila before securing the Tarantula, they would need someone to guard them. At the very least they would need a caretaker and someone on watch to alert the group if the children became in danger. If someone was already being tasked with watching two children, what harm would there be with adding two more? Arriving at the only option that he saw available to them, Tony enlighten the room to his conclusion, “Simple, we take her with us.”

The room erupted with raised concerns. Rapidly it intensified to a shouting match between the participants, with various threats of bodily harm thrown in occasionally. Logan made more than one reference to heads being forcibly shoved into uncomfortable orifices.  It was Scott Summers who stood up and won the battle of the voices, “Are you stupid? We have spent the last decade keeping her away from HYDRA and you want to put her on a plane and deliver her to their front door?”

“We have gone on numerous missions throughout the years and she was left here. She has never been in any danger.” Storm contributed as backup for her friend and colleague.

Tony remained seated. “Yeah, but the game has stepped up here. They know it is now or never, and HYDRA is desperate. We have pushed them to this point. They tried to do it legally to no avail, if you considered shooting her parents to gain custody of her legal. That didn’t work so now they are going to do it illegally. The safest option is to keep her with us.”

The room was at a loss for words to reply to Tony’s comments.  Kate focused her eye sight on him and asked, “May I please speak to you in the hallway?”

There was no way in hell that Kate’s request was any way good. In quiet dignity, Tony stood up and accepted his fate, “Of course.”  

~~~

Walking into the hallway, Kate continued until they were far enough away from the conference room door, “So, what is this? You found Jesus? Maybe you joined AA?”

Starting with her first question, Tony worked down the list to answer each one, “This is a mission briefing. Was he missing? Nope, I am not in AA. What’s with the questions?”

Not finding anything comical about his responses, she explained the reason behind her questions, “I am just trying to find your angle here Tony. A reason to why all of the sudden you are a family man. You never gave a shit before.”

“And I have been meaning to apologize for that.” Tony extended to her, as he put his hands in his pant pockets.

Kate couldn’t help herself but a small laugh escape, “Apologize? For leaving my mother and me? You do understand this isn’t something you just say, ‘I’m sorry’ about?”

Always quick to anger as a first option when being pushed into a corner, Tony hostilely clarified, “I didn’t leave anyone. It was like a group vote or something. I wasn’t good enough for your grandparents, either set of them.”

Kate wondered how she knew more about the situation then he did, or was he playing dumb thinking she didn’t know the facts. “Don’t blame my grandparents for your decisions. They have all been dead a long time.”

“Your mom didn’t want me.” He reluctantly said, embarrassed by the statement being said out loud.

Nope, he wasn’t going to cop out on this one by blaming the dead. Kate had prided herself on being able to overcome the obstacles that life chose to place in front of her.  One of those obstacles was her paternity. Two men had claimed her as their daughter and she couldn’t decide which one was worse. Yes, Derek was probably a terrorist who had ordered no less than two hits on her, but Tony rejected her at conception. He had also been an arms dealer, proclaiming it in the name of national security, but there was still innocent blood on his hands.  She overcame this problem with a hell of a lot of therapy and accepting that she can’t change people, she could only change herself. That people must be taken at face value, and that was what she was trying to do now, get the face value of Tony Stark. “She’s been dead a while also. That’s the other thing, if none of this was in your control, which I highly doubt, why not make a move after she died? I was ten. And don’t even try to tell me you didn’t know because your mom told me that you knew.”

Tony had earlier been curious about the relationship between his parents and daughter. Kate taking his mother’s maiden name only enhanced the interest, “You spoke to my mom about me?”

“Yeah, at the funeral,” The way she said that made him think that she thought he knew it. “She came. In fact, your mom and dad came. I was told that you were studying somewhere. Seriously, didn’t you graduate college when you were thirteen or something, what were you studying abroad? You know, instead of attending the mother of your child’s funeral.”

“I started MIT when I was fifteen, but I had multiple areas of study and continued my education years following graduation. And yes, I was out of the country when Elly died. I didn’t think my presence at her wake would be well received, to say the least.” Moving on to what he really wanted to know, “Is that all my mom said to you?” Kate rolled her eyes and started back towards the conference room, believing that this was not the time or place for them to have it out. Tony disagreed, and reached out to grab her by the upper arm, pulling her back towards him. Ignoring the fiery look of death in Kate’s eyes as an answer to his action, he repeated, “Kate? What else did she say?”

With sad blue eyes, Kate revealed the path her life could have taken, “She said she was going to take me home.”

~~~

_November 1991_

_Kate understood the concept of death, and the ceremony of a funeral. She had attended both of her mother’s parents’ funerals over the past five years. First was grandpa, then three years later grandma followed him. Her mother had explained that they went somewhere to a better place where they didn’t hurt anymore and weren’t sad. Now Kate held onto those words praying they were true. Eleanor’s battle was short but ferocious. She gave the fight everything she had, but in the end lost. Now Kate was alone. She had her dad, Derek, but he wasn’t really her dad, figuratively or literally. However, Derek, as either a father or step father, was all she had.  Since her mother’s death he had barely spoken an entire sentence to her.  Susan, her dad’s biological daughter, told her that Kate would be going away to school soon, somewhere in Europe. It hurt, Derek was all she had anymore, and he wanted her to go away._

_“Katherine?” A woman asked from beside her. Kate had found a corner to hide herself in during the wake for her mother. She didn’t want to talk to anyone and wanted to be left alone. Once in a while Susan or Derek would find her and pull her into a conversation, but Kate always found a way to slowly escape back to her hideout.  “Katherine?” Looking to the woman, Kate recognized her as Maria Stark, her real dad’s mom. The older man next to her was unknown to Kate._

_Preparing the script that had been hammered into her head for today’s event, Kate started to perform, “Hello, thank you for attending today. It means so much to my family.”_

_“Does it really?” The man asked._

_Kate was confused, that hadn’t been a previously received response to her greeting. She just stared at the couple unsure of what to say next. Maria saw that the child was in distress and reprimanded her husband, “Howard, stop it. Pay him no mind dear. This is my husband Howard.”_

_With her most proper voice Kate replied, “Hello Mr. Stark.”_

_Howard looked at her, “Katherine, stop with the Mr. Stark nonsense. You know who I am, so either call me Howard or something else, but not Mr. Stark.”_

_“I said stop it, she is just a child.” Maria glared angerly at her husband then warmed her features to address the child, “Are you alright?”_

_Again, a rehearsed line, “Yes ma’am, I am fine. My father has taken very good care of me during this time.”_

_Usually when Kate spoke with adults, they would complement her parents about how well behaved and spoken she was. Howard Stark looked upset with her remarks. “The kid is on a script Maria.” Howard observed and kneeled in front of the child, “Katherine is that how you really feel or is someone telling you to say that?” Kate looked over to Derek who was talking to some of his business partners, still unaware that she had left the group once again. Howard caught the eye movement. That was all the confirmation that he needed to his question. “You’re ten now, right? How is school, are you receiving good marks?”_

_“I like school,” Kate exclaimed then for some unbeknown reason to her added, “I will be going to a new one soon.”_

_Howard’s eyebrows rose with that comment and asked, “Who says you are?”_

_Looking down at her new black shoes, she answered, “Susan says I’m going to a new school in Europe.”_

_Maria and Howard shared a look as if silently coming to a decision. Howard release a heavy breath and said to his wife, “I’m making an executive decision. We are going to have to pull the trigger on this fast. She’s a Stark, she belongs with us, especially now.” Maria smiled so brightly that her entire face lit up in happiness, which Kate thought was very inappropriate given the setting they were in. Howard took both of Kate’s hands in his own and looked her in the eyes, studying her. “I’m sorry about your mom Katherine.”_

_Glancing quickly again to Derek, Kate told Howard, “Only my dad calls me Katherine, I don’t like it.”_

_“Now we’re getting somewhere, what name do you like to be called?” Howard questioned with a smile._

_“Kate”_

_“Well Kate, you know about Tony, right? Well, your father’s real name is Anthony, but he doesn’t like it. Perhaps there is more Stark in you then I thought. He is studying in Europe right now. He will be home in a few weeks for Christmas.”_

_Why was he telling her this? She had a prepared line for any remarks about the approaching holidays as well, “I hope you and your family enjoy the holidays.”_

_Howard shook her hands in an attempt to take her off script, “Kate, stop with the rehearsed answers please.  I know you have probably been preparing for days with a nanny or someone about what to say to people today. You have been trained to act like a puppet, to perform for an audience. You aren’t a puppet, you are a Stark. When Tony gets home Maria and I will be going to the Bahamas to speak to some people that will help us to be able to take you home.”_

_“Home?” That didn’t make any sense to her. Was she going back to her house or were the Starks taking her back to their home? Someone surely would have mentioned it to her if she was going somewhere else after this._

_Maria was standing behind Howard and put her hand on his shoulder, “Yes dear, we would like you to come live with us. Your father and grandparents. We have a big house on Long Island.  Is that something you would like?”_

_Kate would like her mom back and her normal life with her normal school. In lieu of that, living with the Starks didn’t sound like a bad plan. She liked Maria. Whenever Kate had to accompany her mom to a fundraiser or charity event, Maria Stark would always sneak her treats and ask about her. Howard Stark didn’t seem bad either. “I don’t want to go to Europe.”_

_Howard promised, “I am going to do everything in my power to prevent that.”_

_~~~_

“They never made it to the Bahamas. Hell, they never even made it to the Pentagon.” Seeing that Kate was confused by the inclusion of the military base, Tony explained. “Really long story full of smoke and mirrors, but they were stopping by the Pentagon.”

“I know, they died on the way.” Kate confirmed. “I just didn’t know you knew about the Pentagon meeting.”

Of course, she knew. She was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Even if she only knew the story that the Starks were killed in a car accident, as an agent, she would be able to see the records for the real story, the car accident was just a cover for an assassination.  “Kate, I didn’t know they were going to fight Bishop for custody. They never spoke to me about it. I’m sorry for that. It should have been me leading the charge for custody of you, not my parents.  I can’t fix anything that happened back then. But I need you to let me fix what is happening now.”

“Why?” A simple question that could be applied to so many things.

Needing more to respond to, he asked, “Why what?”

Answering with a blank expression, Kate rephrased, “Why did you leave?”

Shaking his head, “I didn’t leave, Eleanor did.” Kate rolled her eyes, which turned out to be the last straw of Tony’s patience, “Listen, I messed up. Is that what you want to hear? I royally messed up. I was eighteen Kate. Do you remember being that age?” Kate sniggered at that and looked away, disregarding the excuse. Tony wasn’t going to have his confession fall on deaf ears and pushed, “You think the whole world is yours and you’re invincible. I was a smart-ass rich kid that could do no wrong in the public’s eye. I was the heir to the Stark empire, everything we touched turned to gold. I wasn’t used to things going not the way I planned.”

Kate’s left eyebrow rose at the claim and pointed to herself, “Me?”

Not exactly where Tony was attempting to go with it, but here they were, “Yes, you. For everything I just said, that was the world’s opinion of me. Anyone who knew me thought the exact opposite. I was a screw up, a spoiled brat who never had to work for a damn thing in his life.” Looking away, because it was the God’s honest truth that he was about to speak, and he wouldn’t be able to say it and see her face hearing it, “And everyone knew if I was given the chance to, I would do the same thing to you. The person I was back then, that guy, that kid, “he emphasized, “would have never been a good father to you. Your mom and grandparents saw that disaster coming and avoided it at all costs.”

“So again, you are just going to blame everyone else for you being a dead-beat dad?” She couldn’t believe this. Kate wasn’t a teenager when she had Cooper, but she had been a young mother in a sense and didn’t understand Tony’s rationale for his absence from her life, “I am a parent, and you might as well be speaking a different language, because I cannot understand you or your reasoning. Clint is a parent as well, and what is going on in that conference room now is a perfect example of what a father will do when there is a barrier erected between them and their children. You overcome it and get your kids back. You don’t say ‘not my fault’ and move on like they never existed.”

“I know, “he admitted. “I wish I had been half the father to you that Clint has been to his kids. Kate, I swear that you’re not telling me anything I haven’t been telling myself over the years. I know I let you down. God, I have let so many people down.” Tony breathed in deep the remorse he felt with the story of the consequences of his actions, “Did you know it broke your grandmother, Maria’s heart when she found out? She would go to events in the city and see Elly or her mom, hell, even see you,” Releasing the air and pulling another lung full because he had to confess this all in one breath to control the quake in his voice, “she would come home and just lock herself in her room for a day or so. I did that to my mom. I made my mother a grandmother, without her grandchild, and it destroyed her. She never looked at me the same after that. She would never just come out and say it, but I knew she was disappointed and perhaps even to a point, hated me for giving you up.”

Kate pressed, if there was even a remote possibility of anything resembling a relationship between them, she needed to hear him say it, “So, what did you do about it?”

“Honestly, I pushed it away. I drank, partied, and so much more, pushed it deep and away. It was easier to just pretend that you didn’t exist, and to become the disaster that everyone labeled me as.” Knowing that Kate was about to accuse him again of blaming others for his bad decisions, he beat her to it.  “Before you start, I’m not blaming anyone for my actions or behavior, it’s on me. I could have at any point filed for visitation, custody, or hell, simply gone to your house and knocked on the door and demanded to see you.  As the years went on, I allowed the memories and feelings to fade into oblivion.  After a while I was able to disregard my parents’ disappointed glances and go on living my life. I was able to classify my relationship with your mother as just a simple association and push you out of my mind for the most part. It was the only way, the only way I could go on.”

With a mocking ‘pout’ face, Kate taunted, “Poor Tony.”

Feeling drained from the raw emotions and memories he had been forced to revisit, he decided to make his final argument, “I’m not expecting your forgiveness. I have no right to it. I have no right to even ask for it. However, like it or not, I’m here now Kate. And I’m staying.”

“Do I get any input in this, or is it still the ‘Tony’ show and I am just a reoccurring character?” Kate questioned.

Tony was not beyond begging, and this discussion had reach that point unfortunately, “Let me protect my grandchildren like I should have protected you. Please, you have to trust me.”

“Why do I have to trust you? You reversed the wipe, and I thanked you for that, but I don’t owe you a damn thing. You’re right, you don’t get my forgiveness, and sure as hell don’t get my trust. And where do you get off making decisions about my daughter?” Kate shot at Tony. “These people,” she gestured to the hallway that belonged to the X-Men, “have been protecting her since she was seven days old! Up until a few days ago we were fine. I didn’t have my memories, or my family, but my children were safe. You unexpectedly start feeling guilty about a decision you made and want to play happy family. You and your friends do not have the right to come in here and start dictating her or my life.”

“We are trying to save her life Kate.” Tony pleaded and was going to continue but Clint appeared in the hallway.

“You guys doing alright, or do I need to separate you two?” Clint asked as he approached them.

Sending Clint a look that he had seen many times before, and was thankful it wasn’t directed at him for once, Kate answered, “Fine. Just explaining to Tony that I don’t trust him, and he doesn’t get to make decisions about Charlie.”

Clint took in a deep breath as he looked down and placed both hands on his hips, “But I do.” Letting the air slowly escape from his lungs he looked at Tony, “What’s your idea about bringing Charlie along?”

“Clint…” Clint brought his hand up to Kate to silence her interruption. The look he received in response from his wife was easily translated by Tony to mean ‘I know you didn’t just do that. Wait until we don’t have a witness.’

Seeing that convincing Clint was probably the only way Tony would get his plan executed, he explained, “Not just Charlie, Cooper and Pepper as well. We have to have someone to watch the kids, and I don’t feel right leaving Cooper behind at the school, he doesn’t know anyone here. The kid has already been the target too many times this week for any of us to let him out of our sights for long.”

Kate must have also known that Clint was being persuaded by Tony’s plan, “You can’t be taking this seriously? Take the children on a mission?”

Clint paused, absorbing the idea and weighing the potential consequences. Quickly in his trained mind he was able to play out numerous scenarios and their possible outcomes, and the closest thing to a ‘sure bet’ that he would be able to provide security for his children was Tony’s plan. “Tony is right. We can’t leave them here. At least on the quinjet, we know they are safe. We would just have to land somewhere far enough from the fight but close enough to be able to get back to if something happens.” Knowing that he was asking a lot of a mother who had spent a decade within the safe confines of the campus ensuring her daughter’s wellbeing he turned to her, “Kate, if you don’t trust Tony, can you trust me?”

Kate closed her eyes wishing it would all go away once she reopened them, when she did she saw Tony and Clint watching her, “I swear, if just one hair is touched on Cooper or Charlie, I will kill you both.”

“Great, I will go tell everyone the plan.” Tony informed as he walked away before Kate or Clint could change their minds.

That left Clint and Kate alone in the hallway. Clint thought quickly that he should ask her about her recognizably intense conversation with Tony, but there was something else he needed information about that took precedence over the father and daughter troubles. Clint estimated that this could possibly be the last time he would be alone with her until the mission was over and even then, that was questionable.  If everything went as planned, they would have four children wanting their attention. He took advantage of the private time to ask her, “So, you and Logan?”

Without hesitating a second, she answered, “Met at the nunnery. Never was anything serious like attending Mass but we got together for a few prayer groups.” Leaving that revelation in the air, she moved past him to return to the conference room.

Now alone in the hallway Clint started to follow Kate’s lead, “I knew I was going to pay for that comment.”

~~~

Walking back into the room was like walking into a bar brawl that hadn’t yet turned physical. It was simple enough to see who sided with who. It was the Avengers versus the X-Men. Clint saw that Kate was the odd person out, standing by the door watching the events unfold on each side of the table. It was difficult for him to hear specific comments that were being thrown out but was able to pick up just enough to understand the argument was about Charlie’s presence on the mission.

“How about a compromise?” Kate proposed. “Since Charlie hasn’t even seen the other side of the main gate better yet flown somewhere, I think she should travel with Scott and them.” Tony and Clint started to object the suggestion, but Kate didn’t even look in their direction, clearly still upset with them, and continued, “She knows the X-Men and I would feel a whole lot better about her being under their supervision. I know what type of safe guards are onboard and trust them to protect her.” Looking to the side of the table that was occupied by the Avengers, “No offense.”

Logan had been brooding in the corner abstaining from the conversation until then, “I don’t think it’s a great idea to take her, what if HYDRA gets a whiff that she is with us?”

Kate met the gloomy eyes of the Wolverine. Clint felt his chest tighten at the held glance between the two, there was obviously a lot more history to Kate and Logan then she had shared. The tone Kate decided to use was full of concern and need, “Then all the better for the other students.” Logan looked away when the truth of the statement settled on him, so Kate addressed the entire room, “HYDRA has known Charlie’s whereabouts her entire life. How much do you want to bet that they have a gamma detector aimed at the school? They are constantly monitoring, more so these last few days. The cloaking mode on the jet will block the gamma detector. That would mean HYDRA will only know where Charlie is not.  They will be aware that she has left campus. HYDRA will have no need to attack the school if she is gone. Everyone left behind here will be safe.”

“That is a valid argument.” Professor Xavier said to disrupt the long pause on conversation as everyone absorbed the points Kate brought up. “I think it is fair to say that no one is content with this decision but lacking any other option we cannot handle a mission of this magnitude and protect the school with Charlotte in it. Katherine’s concern is rightly placed. If Charlotte were to remain here, then the moment the jet takes off from the school and far enough away, HYDRA would not hesitate to send people here to seize her. I will go along and help with protecting the children on board.” Not happy with the decision, Logan got up and left the room. Others took that as a cue for the meeting to end. They had a plan but needed to move fast.

~~~

As far as plans went, this mission’s profile was pretty simple, the X-Men would land south of the base while the Avengers would set down north. They already had S.H.I.E.L.D agents scattered around the boundary conducting recon and getting the intel they needed for the assault. Director Fury would be taking point on the mission calling out orders from the helicarrier. Pepper and the children went with the X-Men while Kate flew with the Avengers. She would have preferred to be with the children, but Tony convinced her to stay with him, so he could explain her suit and kit during the flight and use her assistance on infiltrating the base’s security system.

Kate was watching the live video feed on a StarkPad from the X-Men’s jet of the kids. Every once and a while Clint would glance over and steal a quick peek. Cooper was sitting next to Pepper, knowing the gravity of the situation he had been placed in and was handling it all in a sort of silent dignity. In contrast was his sister who was all over the place asking what every button and switch did. It was fascinating to Clint how Cooper in his quiet thinking reminded him of his mother. Kate was all fun and games until there was a job to be done, then she would become serious and objective driven, until the assignment was completed.  Then there was Charlie, and she was all Clint. He easily recognized the nervous energy the child was displaying as one of his own dominant traits. Isn’t that what Hank was talking about, ‘nature over nurture’? These children were the replica of their parents, despite not having any exposure to them.  God help the world when they got older, because that was destined to be a show. He watched the feed a little longer, captivated by the personality the little girl had.  She was curious, brave and perfect. How could a child who had gone through everything Charlotte did still have a smile on her face and happiness in her voice? Especially in this situation? In Clint’s eyes, Charlie was nothing short of a miracle, his miracle child. He had so much to make up for, and just prayed he was given the time to do it.

Clint’s thinking was ended when Wanda came up behind him to speak to Kate, “Excuse me, Mrs. Bishop, Barton, Cap…”

“Kate. Please just call me Kate. You’re Wanda correct?” She stated without looking up from the tablet.

Not knowing what else to say Wanda could only confirm, “Yes ma’am.”

“Thought I said to call me Kate.”

Clint moved from his position behind Kate and pulled Wanda with him as they moved in front of her, “I’m sorry, with so many new faces around, I forgot to introduce you two. Wanda this is my wife Kate, Kate this is Wanda Maximoff. She is sort of my third daughter.”

Kate finally looked up and made direct eye contact with Clint, “At this point, I can’t tell if that is a joke or not.” Her face was expressionless, which made the hairs on Clint’s arms stand on end.

Wanda was pulling at her fingers in a nervous gesture, “I wanted to ask you about your daughter, Charlotte.”

It was obvious that Wanda was cautious of Kate. Clint could see that Kate also noticed the stand-off impression she was sending and attempted to soften her face to be interpreted as more approachable by the young lady. “You want to ask me about her training?”

“Yes ma’am, I mean Kate.” Wanda was fast to correct. Vision had heard the start of the conversation and had moved over to the group. His presence gave Wanda some confidence to continue, “Professor Xavier told me that if I enrolled in the school, my training would be similar to Charlotte’s. We may even do group sessions together with the Professor.”

“Is that something you would like to pursue, enrolling?”  Clint inquired. The concept of Wanda and Charlie learning how to control their abilities together was a very appealing thought to him.

Wanda nodded, “The Professor said that a student visa would not be a problem, however I would have to stay in residence at the school. I wouldn’t be able to stay at the compound, and after everything that has happened I don’t think I would want to.”

It made sense to Clint, all of it. The government would not allow the Avengers to house Wanda after the Accords mess, there was just too much liability involved. Wanda not wanting to be at the compound was justifiable, it probably brought back a lot of bad memories. Vision didn’t look happy about Wanda’s confession of housing preferences, but it seemed he supported her decision, whatever it would be. He was just happy she was back on American soil and with him.

“There is another option that has been used in the past for Xavier’s students.” Vision offered hesitantly, “The school has a student sponsorship program where a visa student can be housed with another student’s family.” He ended the comment staring a Clint, hoping that the suggestion was accurately conveyed.

Clint thought for a moment about what was being asked, “Wanda, you know you are welcomed wherever I am. But I am in the middle of housing right now. My house is in Iowa, and you can’t be at the compound.”

Kate offered, “I live in a cottage on campus. It’s only two bedrooms, but we could arrange something.”

“Are you planning on staying there?” Clint assumed that wherever they ended up, it would be together. Kate’s comment about offering the cottage to Wanda threw him.

“Well, I guess it depends on the outcome of this mission now doesn’t it?” Kate responded in a condescending way with an arched eyebrow.

That was all Clint needed, ‘hope’ that they could go back to something like how they were. A life and family together. He started planning for his family, “So, we need a house. Somewhere in between the school and compound. At least five bedrooms, the girls can share since they are so close in age. “

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Kate interjected waving her hands in Clint’s face as she did it. “This is the cart before the horse.” Her voice was a bit louder then she planned because she now had the attention of everyone on the quinjet. Sam was piloting the jet with Rhodey in the copilot seat. Natasha, Tony and Steve were in the back conferencing with Assistant Director Hill and Scott Summers via teleconferencing about what the S.H.I.E.L.D agents on the ground had uncovered about the HYDRA base so far. They had all looked towards Kate at her outburst. Lowering her voice at Clint she said, “Let’s just get through this alive, then we can talk about our domestic situation.”

Not loving that she referred to it as a ‘domestic situation’, Clint had to accept that as the end of that particular conversation. Turning to Wanda, he reassured her,” We will take care of it, no worries.”

Wanda and Vision went back to their seats on the side of the quinjet and quietly conversed. Steve left Tony and Natasha in the back to approach the Avengers in the front part of the jet, “Hey guys, current mission layouts are up on the tablets. Check out your positions and ask questions now if you have them. During a firefight isn’t the time to question orders.” As he spoke, Steve handed both Kate and Clint a tablet with their orders on it for review.

With one last glance to the live feed of Charlie and Cooper on her other tablet, Kate placed it on the empty seat next to the left of her, Clint had taken the seat to the right, “Charlie is beyond excited to be off the school grounds. It’s awful that it’s because of this. I always hoped that the first time would be Disneyworld or something like that. You know, a positive experience of the outside world.” Kate was looking down and swiping at the new tablet, but Clint knew she was speaking to him.

Clint searched for the right words to say. There weren’t any that would fit, the child had been in hiding her whole life for the sake of her safety. Her first venture into the real world and it was to a terrorist base who had spent ten years trying to take her from her mother. Before Clint could say anything that would even remotely be considered reassuring, Stark butted in, “Don’t worry about that. Once this mission is done, HYDRA won’t be that much of a threat, if any at all. We will take all the kids to Disneyworld. Steve’s never been either, and Clint is now off house arrest. We can make it a team building thing. Total tax write-off.” 

Clint acted like he was ignoring Tony but secretly was liking the idea the Ironman had suggested.  Turning his attention back to the screen he noticed that the mission was straight forward. Clint and Natasha’s priority were to find and secure the children. Since they didn’t know what Laura had told Lila or Nat, it would be best for people the children were familiar with to approach them and bring them back to the jet.  Kate would have their back until the kids were recovered, then she would take point. While Natasha would still be able to use her weapon and carry a child, Clint would not. If they came under heavy fire on the way back to the jet, Clint knew that he could change roles with Kate at any point. He still had some reservation of Kate being in the fight but trusted her to say if she got in over her head.  She had been a good agent, and would never risk a mission, better yet the lives of children, just to prove her abilities. “You know hiding top HYDRA agents within a retirement community that S.H.I.E.L.D. allowed to be an asylum is dirty, its beyond cheating.”

In a low voice, almost a whisper, Kate made the comment, “Well, you would know about cheating wouldn’t you.”

Clint took a deep breath in to still himself before he responded. Apparently, the conversation in the car about Laura wasn’t the end of it, not that honestly, he thought it would be. But a man can dream, can’t he? Earlier he had said some things in the heat of the moment and didn’t feel like repeating that episode. In a monotone voice he defended, “There is no cheating with a memory wipe.”

Kate scoffed loudly, “You just made up that rule. You cheated.”

“Then so did you.” Clint hated that he sounded so childish with his response. Then he became fully aware that the back and forth had resulted with everyone, who was horribly pretending that they weren’t overhearing the conversation, to turn and give the couple their attention.

“Children. Don’t make me turn this quinjet around.” Sam warned over his shoulder from the cockpit. He was trying to lighten the mood and save Clint from whatever hellfire Kate was about to rain down on him.

Tuning Sam out, Kate stood up and faced Clint then rationalized in a voice that one would assume was reserved for the classroom when she had to teach new content, “No, you fell in love, that means you not only cheated physically, but emotionally as well. Which may I add, can arguably be far worse. I only cheated physically. That’s two-points against my one point and points cancel out in this, which leaves it at one to zero, you cheated.”

The only sound in the cabin was the low hum of the engine while everyone attempted to decode Kate’s formula. Finally, Clint closed his mouth which was left hanging by the previous statement to be able to ask, “What the hell are you talking about.”

Kate was about to go through it all again when Tony came up in front of her, “Kate, blood made us related, but what you just did there – confusing and at the same time winning an argument against Barton – that made us family. I have never said this in a non-sexual way but,” Tony opened his arms, “come to daddy!”

“You both are idiots!” Kate screamed as she slapped Tony’s arm away and stormed off to the back of the jet.

“I forgot how much fun it is to be on a mission with you and Kate.” Natasha observed dryly as Kate passed her, then threw the still confused Clint a small smile.

Rhodey turned to the cabin and announced, “We’re five minutes out, let’s get ready.

 

 

 


	28. Chapter Twenty-Seven ~ Gonna Hurt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone sticking with me! I really hope you are enjoying this story.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Gonna Hurt

The HYDRA base the Tarantula, former weapons manufacturing station turned retirement home, resembled a five-star luxury health resort. S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel in the field had been sending surveillance imagery to the quinjet for the duration of the flight to aide in development of the attack. The building was a rounded structure made up of a mirror glass exterior consisting of four stories. The specific type of metal used on the outside of the building made it impossible for Professor Xavier to read anyone’s mind within the confines of the unit. He had a similar experience with such materials when he was younger. The same technology used must be the reason why Professor Xavier had been having difficulties finding Secretary Ross.

Wanda had a comparable hindrance, since it was HYDRA whose experiments gave her the mind-altering ability, there were for sure some safeguards the organization had put into place. There would have to be precautionary measures developed by the HYDRA scientists in the event she ever used her abilities against them. To err on the side of caution, the Professor politely requested that Wanda not use her mind controlling abilities on this mission, fearing that such safeguards could affect the outcome of the mission. It would take years to understand what the Scarlett Witch was fully capable of, and this was not the time or place to figure it out.

Mirror glass aside, the architecture had the possibility of both benefiting and hindering the mission of the Avengers and X-Men.  The lack of corners made it easier to prevent a sneak attack by HYDRA agents on their approach to penetrating the base, but at the same time, prevented them from doing the same thing. The terrain was flat with very little foliage or natural cover near the building. A smart move on the terrorist organization’s part again, any attack attempt would be seen, and counter measures initiated before any of them could clear the wooded coverage of the forest. The attack would need to be fast and hard for anyone to successfully enter the base.

The Tarantula was located southwest of the Gloucester National Park, a park managed by the Australian government through their Department of Environment and Conservation. The park essentially wrapped around the base. That was their one and only bout of good luck with the mission. Being a government owned property, a few phone calls by Director Fury and both the X-Men and Avengers had clearance to land their jets on government property without starting an international problem. The Sokovia Accords were still in effect, even with Ross’ actions, Australia was one of the hundred and seventeen countries to approve it. It was probably best left unanswered what favors Fury had to call in or promises made for the country to permit the Avengers to step foot on their land. While the attack plan was still sound, one team would head to the north side and the other to the south, the X-Men would need to land more to the west of the forest to provide any shelter.

“How are we looking out there?” Steve inquired to the helicarrier via the screen on the side of the jet that displayed Nick Fury, as he contemplated the most efficient way to get into the building.

“Quiet on the outside. Waiting for you all to confront the enemy before I send any of my people in.” Fury explained from the findings that his ground agents had reported. The lay of the land had made it difficult for him to get any of his agents close to the base. Agents had been set up around the border with relay equipment that had the capability to send and receive data on such an obscure frequency that it would be impossible for HYDRA to detect it, let alone hack it.

Turning away from the screen, Steve asked the Avengers, “Everyone ready for this? We have to move fast if we have any chance of getting in before they hit the alarm.”

Walking towards where Steve was, Tony expressed, “Not yet.”

“Tony what is it?” Steve questioned already feeling exhausted and the mission hadn’t even started.

“You aren’t ready.” Tony specified then reached up into a compartment reserved for their gear and produced Captain America’s trademark red white and blue vibranium alloy shield, “You need this.”

Steve inquired skeptically, “You sure?”

“It’s yours isn’t it?” Tony remarked as if it was as simple as that, then armored up and headed out the door. He then passed Steve as he exited the jet, the rest of the team followed leaving a speechless Rogers as the last to depart.

~~~

“If anything seems wrong, you call us.” Storm instructed towards Pepper as she handed her a comm unit to place in her ear. “They will notify you before they approach the jet” she said referring to the Avengers, who were tasked with bringing back the children, “And the jet is in stealth mode, so honestly anyone knocking on the door should be friendly.”  Professor Xavier was there to protect the children as well, but Storm didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

Moving over to be by the only female member of the X-Men on the mission, Xavier assured, “We will be fine. Our part of the mission isn’t the dangerous portion.”

“I would just like to again go on record saying that I do not approve of any of this.” Logan expressed as he lit a cigar and stepped off the jet to take a look around the surroundings. They were far away from the compound, but that had to be done to both not alert anyone that they were there and to keep the children as far away as possible. They also needed to be close enough that help could get back if anyone found the plane. Storm would make sure that the commute to the entry point was short as well as any return trips that may be needed. Still, the whole thing didn’t sit well in his stomach.

“Noted.” The Professor called over to him as Charlie tried to get a look out of the door. It was her first time anywhere, and she wanted to see anything and everything. Xavier trusted her not to get off the plane, but Logan did not.

“Get your ass back in there pup!” He shouted and pointed at her with his cigar.

“Logan, really?” Scott scolded from the door at the choice of Logan’s language towards the ten-year-old girl.  

“Can I kill any HYDRA agents who try to get us?” Charlie asked from next to Scott, indifferent to Logan’s last comment to her.

“Yes” Logan answered nonchalantly as he gestured for her to move away from the door. 

Giving a disapproving look to Logan, Scott contradicted to the child, “No.”

“Well, which is it?” Charlie questioned with a hint of attitude in her voice.

Moving Charlie away from the door just in case they were being watched, Storm explained as she handed the girl over to Pepper, who was still in shock that the child would ask such a request, “Charlie, you know better. If there is a problem the grownups will handle it.”

_“Everyone ready to move on your end yet? We need Storm to provide cover.”_ Steve questioned over the line.

Logan sighed at the question, “Not yet, Cyclops and Storm are explaining to Charlie that she is not allowed to kill anyone.”

Clint was fast on that comment with worry and horror mixed in his voice, _“You’re explaining what to Charlie?”_

_“Tell her that mom says ‘no’. That should end it.”_ Kate said casually which got her strange looks from the Avengers.

“Charlie your mom says you can’t kill any HYDRA people today.” Logan repeated to the girl. It seemed to work, because all Charlie did was walk away and sit down between Cooper and Pepper.

Satisfied that the odds of HYDRA finding the jet and Charlie acting out in that unlikely situation were settled as best they could be, Cyclops decided to get things moving, “Ok, that crisis is averted. Storm get us to our entry point and make a mess.”

~~~

The Avengers split into three teams. Natasha, Steve, Clint and Kate were to find the kids and take out any opposition in the process. Tony and Rhodey would case the building and move inward until they met up with Scott and Logan. Basically, trapping any hostiles in the middle of the compound. Storm, Vision, Sam and Wanda were to monitor the outside of the compound and contain anyone who attempted to escape the siege. They were also responsible for getting any S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel in and out of the compound and keeping watch in case of any HYDRA reinforcements arrived.

“In position yet?” Steve asked the second team over comms. Everyone was taking cover within the first five hundred feet to the clearing. Once Storm started, they would all run up to their entry points.

Scotts’ voice answered the question, “ _We are ready to take the south, however there isn’t any entrance.”_

Sending a concerned and questionable glance to his group Steve followed up, “What do you mean?”

_“He means that there isn’t a door, just a wall.”_ Logan’s annoyance being detected through the technology. 

The Avengers looked to Tony who defended, “The blueprints are old, they probably boarded up the south entrance to reduce how many doors they had to guard.” 

“Any suggestions on how to get them in there?” Steve directed to Tony. Tony had the ability to bring up the blueprints on his screen within the Ironman helmet, but any answer was halted at Scott’s interruption.

“Oh, I can get in, it’s just not going to be pretty.” He coolly replied.

Tony understood what Scott was hinting at doing but offered a disclaimer, “Wait until we get in and I disable the alarm, then do your redecorating, alright?”

Scott answered shortly, “Copy that.”

With Scott and Logan on hold until the alarm system could be deactivated, Steve moved onto the main event, “Storm how are we doing with the visual distraction?”

“Waiting on your mark. Just be careful, some of these trees may uproot. Be on guard." Storm alerted as she began the process of summoning up a wind storm that would be the perfect cover. The storms were common in this area of the Outback, and HYDRA assuming, at least for a few minutes, that there was nothing out of the ordinary would be their ticket in.

“I can incapacitate their exterior security from here; the frequency is visible, and odds are that HYDRA will blame the system outage on the storm. So, as soon as the ‘weather’ starts, we can go.” Tony explained as he had FRIDAY bring up the backdoor entrance he had discovered, with the assistance of Kate, into the HYDRA exterior security system. The base had basic exterior security measures in place. Cameras, trip sensors, and motion detection.  “I would imagine that they will send people out to protect the entrances until their security department is able to get the system back up and running, so that will be the main opposition for us getting in. I have to be in the building to shut down anything else, it’s an entirely different system running the interior defenses.”

Taking in the mission plan, Steve instructed to Clint, “If you can get a shot, take it, but don’t take any risks.” He was referring to the gale force winds that would soon be starting, and the arrows Kate and Clint would be shooting in his direction. “Get to a high point to call out what is going on from your position. You will be able to see a lot more than us on the ground.” 

Accepting the adaptions to his assignment, Clint signaled for Kate to follow him. He knew the perfect vantage position to take that would still utilize the covering from the forest. If Storm kept the windstorm limited to the clearing around the facility, then the archers would still be in play, providing coverage from behind the storm.

“Storm, when you are ready, so are we.” Steve declared.

It started as a low hum, something no one would take notice of. The skies darkened with clouds that threatened an approaching rain shower. Then a light breeze brought a cooling relief to the high temperatures of the landscape. A notable change was apparent when a few scatter leaves and light weight branches started to lift from the ground and were carried away. From there the winds increased, causing larger objects to be elevated and caught in the wind current. A slow-moving fog crept from the forest across the barren land and engulfed the base. They had their opportunity now to walk right up to the front door without anyone being any wiser.

Standing next to Natasha, Steve lifted his shield in front of her. Natasha was the only one except for Steve without armor, or the ability to fly, moving in for a direct hit on the base to gain access. “Let’s move in. Everyone needs to keep a watch out. Clint and Kate, yell out if you see something big coming at us from behind.”

“Roger that Rogers.” Kate called back being rewarded by a chuckle from Clint at her little joke.

Even though it had already been addressed that they would need to quickly get to the entrance, the wind storm and fog presented challenges in the way of speed. Walking up to the front of the compound did present the possibility of encountering any agents who would be sent out to check the area to compensate for the security system being down. However, there wasn’t another entrance that was faster to get the team in and off on their mission goals. Sam, Vision and Wanda went off to cover the perimeter with Storm joining them once she got the others in.  First Storm had to move with the remaining four Avengers to ensure that the front entrance had zero visibility from the inside. Tony blasted the front doors to the point of rumble, which resulted in a group of HYDRA agents running out of the building. Natasha and Steve ran up to confront and draw them away from the entrance, trying to get them far enough away so that Tony could get inside and take down the system. As Storm moved closer to the building, the storm lessened behind her. This gave Kate and Clint the ability to move closer and stay behind the storm to be able to call out patterns and take out the odd agent from getting an upper hand on either Steve or Nat.

Once the goons were far enough away, Tony and Rhodes flew in and attacked from the back. The technology in their suits gave them the capability to use infrared to see through the wind and fog. Rhodey attacked from behind while Tony made his way into the building.  As soon as Tony was standing inside what could only be called a reception area, void of anyone, he deactivated the security protocols and system. “System is down.” Tony called out as he watched Steve take out the last of the three standing agents. Throwing his shield in such a way that it looked like a live action pin ball arcade game, ricocheting off one into another, bouncing off the second person across the area and taking the last one out. As the three men fell, the shield dutifully returned to its owner.

Once everyone was inside they were able to get a good look at the facility. It appeared to just be a large circle. A large amount of electricity was coming from the center of the building. Shutting off the electricity was easy, Tony once again had FRIDAY pull up the mainframe that they had previously been playing in to shut down the security and figured out where the database for the power was located on the server. When that was found, FRIDAY implanted a simple virus into the coding that would result in everything running off electricity with the exceptions of the central air and the emergency lighting to shut off. With that much power dedicated to the center, it was easy to assume that the middle was where all the HYDRA business was, the outside was for the ruse of appearing to look like a legit retirement community. The first matter of business was to clear the first floor before penetrating the center of operations and recovering the children. Eventually they would need to move up the floors, but if the children were found and removed, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents could handle the clearing.  The team split into two to accomplish their specific assignments. Tony and Rhodes going left, Steve, Clint, Kate and Natasha going right.

The right hallway consisted of numerous closed doors, that only revealed to be abandoned offices when they were opened.  Softly moving about the bend of the hall Natasha saw four guards standing watch outside of a room further down the hallway. Turning quickly, she motioned for everyone to get into one of the previously cleared offices.

“Four watchmen three doors down.” She informed when she was met with questionable glances for her actions.

Talking his way through the scenario Steve explained, “Even with the system down, it’s the first floor. They would have heard the explosion, they know there is an attack happening.”

“Which would mean that by them still being on guard, what is in that room is very important.” Clint summarized.

Natasha knew that taking out four HYDRA personnel wasn’t a challenge, the challenge being not to let the people in the secured room know about their impending arrival. “Now we have to figure out how to take out four armed guards without alerting the occupants.”

Looking to Kate, Clint asked, “Domitian?”

Shaking her head at the code word they used about the Roman Emperor who was said to have been able to fire off four arrows at once, she answered, “I have been out of the game too long for a Domitian. But, it’s the best plan to take them out as quietly as possible. Can you do it still?”

Taking obvious offense to his wife’s question of Clint’s accuracy with firing off multiple arrows simultaneously, “What kind of question is that? Of course, I can do it, I just don’t like being a showoff.”

Following that the two archers were developing a plan out of their predicament, Steve was unsure exactly what they were discussing, “What are you two talking about?”

Reaching behind him, Clint retrieved four arrows and nocked them all.  “Doesn’t matter, you’ll see. Just know I got it. Be ready to move.”

Stepping out into the hallway, Clint moved up to the four men, not hiding his presence. With the structure being round, it didn’t take more than three seconds for the guards to see the approaching threat of Clint Barton. They didn’t have the chance to even lift their guns or radio for assistance before each man fell with an arrow to their chest.

Running up from behind Clint to kick away the agent’s weapons, Steve took a moment to check their vitals, preparing to call for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s medic to take them away, but discovered it wasn’t needed. While he was impressed by Clint’s ability to take out four guards with one draw of his bow, Steve had to question, “Couldn’t you just have immobilized them? Did you have to kill them?”

“Why the hell would you want me to do that?” Clint asked in bewilderment of the question from the Captain. “Would you have preferred me to shoot them in the leg? They can still shoot at us or radio to back up and warn every one of our location.” Clint broke away from Steve and went about pulling out the arrows from the chests of the fallen. The reasons for his actions was both to conserve arrows to be used again later and take away his classic ‘calling card’. An arrow sticking out of a HYDRA agent’s body would be easily tracked back to him which would alert Laura that he was in the building and tracking her. 

Clint had a point, but it still didn’t sit well with Steve. He was aware that Clint had specialized tech arrows that would restrained the enemy, why didn’t he use them? The simplest answer to Steve’s unspoken question was that Clint was out for blood. He wanted revenge for the wrongs committed against him and his family and would extract it from every HYDRA agent he came up against. “I just have a problem with killing people who despite who they work for, are just following orders. Honestly, I have problems with killing in general.”

Walking up to Steve, Clint put his hand on the Captain’s shoulder, “Well, fortunate for you Cap, I have never had that problem.”

Kate ran up to meet the men with Natasha following, who was watching their backs. “If you gentlemen are done with your moral soul searching, how about we see what’s behind door number one?” Kate said nocking an arrow of her own in preparation of another fight.

Natasha opened the door for Steve to enter first into the room. The area looked to be the type of room you would find in any day care center. Brightly painted walls in the primary colors with activity centers set up in each corner. An area rug that had the alphabet displayed on the sides had been placed in the middle of the room. There were five children present with three adults watching them. It appeared that none of the adults were armed, probably just caretakers of the ‘HYDRA day care center’. No one was naive enough to believe that the room was void of any defense measures but trusted since it was a room designed for children, any weapons were safely locked away, out of reach of little hands. Natasha and Steve moved quickly and confronted the three adults. They ushered them out of the room quietly to not disrupt the children and let them know something was going on. The detainees were silent and therefore cooperating with their captors for the same reason, not to alert the kids. It seemed to work since none of the children even looked up from their activities. Scanning the youngsters for familiar faces, Clint only recognized one of them, Lila.

“Director Fury, we have children here in need of extraction. I also have three noncombatant HYDRA personnel that need to be taken in.” Natasha requested once she and the other adults were out of the room.

_“How many?”_ Maria Hill’s voice asked as she sent the request for the nearest cell of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to go to Natasha. The cell of S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel were able to get to the requested location swiftly since the outer defense measures were vanquished due to the opening attack. Sam, Wanda, Vision, and Storm were still outside making sure that entry and egress were without interruption as quickly as possible.

Waiting for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to get to her location for Natasha to be able to hand over custody of the captured adults, she reported in, “Four, the fifth child here is Lila.”

Nick’s voice was the next to ask a question, _“Nathaniel?”_

“Not here.” Steve stated looking over the room once again to be sure that the toddler wasn’t there. It appeared Kate was doing the same thing, checking under and behind things, just in case the boy was hiding somewhere.

_“Laura?”_ Fury followed up with.

Natasha repeated, “Not here.”

Lila was sitting at a table drawing with her back to the room and was so focused on what she was doing that the child didn’t notice what was going on behind her. Clint walked up and put his hand on her head, the girl jumped at the unexpected touch and was surprised when she turned to see who did it.

“Dad!” she exclaimed and jumped into his arms.

“Hey there.” Clint said trying to come up with something better to say to his daughter after the ordeal she had been through. Kate positioned herself behind Lila and put her hands up in an unspoken question that Clint caught instantly. Pulling himself away from Lila he asked her, “Where is Nate?”

Noticeably ignorant to the danger she was in, Lila innocently answered, “Mom took Nate upstairs for a nap.”

S.H.I.E.L.D. agents entered the room to take charge of the agents and the other children. Moving out of the way to let them do their job, Steve said, “Let’s get her on the jet and then try to find Nate.”

“I don’t want to waste time.” As protective as he was over his children, Clint couldn’t justify the need for four people to be escorting his daughter back to the jet. “If someone saw us they could have warned Laura of our location by now. She must know we are in the building. How about you and Nat take her, and Kate and I continue the search?”

Hearing her aunt’s name, Lila started to look around for the first time. It took her a minute to take in the scene in the formerly quiet and happy room. People were everywhere, and children were asking why they had to go with strangers and where their parents were. Natasha held out her hand for Lila to take, but the girl had her attention on someone else, Kate. She was dressed like her dad with a bow in her right hand. Also, her position standing next to Captain America helped Lila to conclude that the mysterious woman was a good guy but didn’t know who she was. “Who are you?”

Kate looked to Nat and Clint for one of them to field the question. “This is Kate, remember I told you about her yesterday.” Clint explained.

“You’re Cooper’s real mom.” Lila stated bluntly as she sized Kate up. The child had been raised around people like Natasha Romanoff and Nick Fury. First impression showed that this woman appeared to be in the same league as them to Lila.

Impatiently Kate answered, “Yes I am.” Then made a face at Clint to convey that they had to get moving. The mission had resulted in children being taken in, that fact alone could cause the entire mission to escalate very quickly to a much more dangerous point if the parents were top HYDRA agents. Time was more of a priority now than ever.  

Natasha pulled Lila with her towards the entrance. Steve got in front of them and looked down both ends of the corridor before motioning for them to exit. Putting his hand to his comm unit Steve reported in as Nat picked Lila up and he placed his shield in front of the child’s body to protect her from anything that could hurt her until they reached the jet. “Romanoff and I are escorting Lila back to the jet. Barton and Bishop are continuing the search for Laura and Nathaniel Barton.”

~~~

“Sounds good.” Tony answered back as he and Rhodes were about to enter the main hall of the first floor. They, like the other team had experienced some resistance. When they did meet a small cell of agents, they either attacked or ran away.  When HYDRA picked option A, Tony and Rhodes easily took care of the opponents and requested S.H.I.E.L.D. to deal with the cleanup. Option B was by far the more entertaining of the two choices. Each time the cell ran away it was to outside the compound by way of the nearest exit. Unbeknownst to the escapees, someone was always waiting for them on the outside for the capture.  Sometimes they would be caught up in a mini tornado, courtesy of Storm. Others would be encased by a red presence created by Wanda. Sam and Vision would just swoop down and grab the deserters, scaring the shit out of the person in the process. 

From the doorway of the main hall, they could see that there were tables set up with people seated, all of them were facing the front. A presenter was standing on the stage. They couldn’t hear from where they were what was being said, but it was HYDRA so that narrowed down the topic from being anything good.

“There looks to be about sixty people in there.” Rhodey commented with another glance into the room then back to his stance on the outside of the room so they couldn’t be seen.

“At least.” Tony confirmed, then called through comms to the helicarrier, “Hey, we have what looks to be a propaganda meeting going on in the great hall. Definitely going to need some back up here.”

_“I have teams moving in on your location. Vision clear the outside exit to that room to allow a team in.”_ Fury ordered while looking over the 3D projection of the compound’s blueprints. With a matter of three taps on the projection, a team was deployed to the requested location.

It didn’t take any time at all for a S.H.I.E.L.D. team to appear on both sides next to Tony and Rhodes. Vision’s voice came to life next, _“The entrance to the specified location is clear and a team is assembled outside of it ready for your order to infiltrate.”_

_“Ok, everyone moves in on my mark.”_ Fury commanded and waited a moment, _“go!”_

The strike was conducted just in time for everyone to hear what the presenter had to say, “B 5, again B 5”

Almost every participant in the room ignored the intrusion, staying focused on the game until one woman stood up and excitedly proclaimed, “BINGO!”

Director Fury allowed the humor to be heard in his voice, _“Congratulations Stark, you just successfully captured a HYDRA BINGO hall.”_

~~~

Waiting on the south side of the compound within the woods, Scott and Logan waited until they heard Stark had deactivated the security system. When it finally came over comms that it was down, the two senior X-Men moved in, not taking as much time or care as the Avengers did regarding the storm and fog. Having been in similar situations many times before, they knew how to maneuver around one of Storm’s creations. As had been previously discussed, there wasn’t a south entry. That information was vital, it meant that whatever the base was harboring in the center of its compound, the south part of the building was part of it. Scott adjusted his visor and blew an entrance into the south side. Just like at the north attack, as soon as an opening was made, there was hostile fire charging towards the men.

Bullets rained down on them. It appeared HYDRA was waiting for some attack on its southern side and well prepared for it. Scott was fighting his way through the attack, narrowly missing numerous opportunities of being shot. With an adjustment to his visor, Scott weaken the strength of the optic blast, so it just knocked the assailants out. Logan on the other hand walked a straight line right up to the entrance, slashing his way through the enemy, all the while taking numerous bullets to his body. While each bullet invading his body hurt like hell, it didn’t slow him down in the least. Approaching one specific guard who was standing in the middle of the makeshift doorway, the guard emptied his ammo into the Wolverine.

Waiting until he heard the repetitive ‘click, click, click’, signifying an empty clip, Logan caught the look of panic in the man’s eye. A boy who couldn’t be older than twenty and was watching his young life flash in front of his eyes. “You done?” The Wolverine asked in a laidback tone. He was using the ploy of intimidating the man-child as a chance to give his body the needed time to regenerate and eject the hardware the HYDRA boy had given him. 

In visual terror and astonishment of the Wolverine’s abilities, the young man slowly nodded his head. Logan pointed to the gun then to the ground. Following the order, the agent threw the weapon down and raised his hands in surrender. “Good boy, you’re smarter then you look. Now just walk that way.” Logan instructed by again pointing, this time to the right, “and some nice, but strange ass people will take you in.”

Scott caught up with Logan and watched as the agent did as he was instructed, “Storm, we have a surrendering agent coming your way for take in.”

“Yeah, he’s just a kid. He probably needs a new pair of pants after all of that.” Logan commented and gestured to the whole in the wall, “After you Cyclops.”

Knowing that Logan was sending him in to take the first wave of whatever was heading towards them, he accepted the invitation, “Why thank you Logan, that is so nice of you.”

“Well, you know me, always the nice guy.” He returned with a smile as he took his position behind Scott and entered the compound.

Logan had just placed both feet inside the walls of the Tarantula when he heard the sound of approaching military issued steel-toed boots stomping on the floor.  Looking down at his hole decorated shirt, which at this point showed more skin then it did material, he watched the last of the bullets slide out of his abdomen and create a ‘clank’ sound as it hit the ground.

“We have incoming.” Scott said looking over his shoulder at his teammate.

Deciding not to wait for the welcoming committee to come to them, the men continued to move inward, it didn’t take long before they were within the sight of the cell. The group stopped and took position, the first five kneeling down with guns drawn, and the second five standing behind also with guns pointed at the duo. Logan pushed Scott aside, while Cyclops could do a lot of damage to this group, it would be impossible to do as swiss cheese. Scott’s willingness to be moved told Logan that he was on board with the unspoken plan. Logan would act as the distraction while Scott followed up with disabling the troops.

Hearing the echoes within the concrete hall of ten safeties being switched off, all Logan could say as he accepted what was about to happen, “This is gonna hurt.”

~~~

“Pepper, we are approaching the jet with Lila.” Natasha announced through her comm piece when they were in the clearing in the woods where the jet should be. Immediately a flicker occurred, and the X-Men’s jet appeared, Xavier having turned off the stealth mode. The hatch opened, inviting Steve, Nat and Lila onto the jet.

“Lila are you ok?” Cooper asked running up to her when the trio boarded. The frightened girl was relieved to see her brother and grabbed him without any intentions of letting go soon. Cooper just wrapped his arms around Lila and rubbed her back comfortingly as he had seen Natasha do the other day. Natasha thought back to when Clint had filled her in on Cooper’s outburst that Lila wasn’t his sister, however after witnessing the concerned brotherly love the boy just displayed. She knew it was safe to assume that Cooper still considered Lila his sister and loved her as such.

Pepper walked over to the siblings pushing a hesitant Charlie with her, wanting to get introductions out of the way, and give Lila something else to focus on then the affairs she had just been a part of, “Lila, this is Charlie.”

“She’s our sister.” Cooper explained letting go of Lila but keeping one arm protectively wrapped around her shoulders.

Lila looked the girl up and down and it seemed Charlie was doing the same thing. “My dad told me about you”, she finally said.

Showing that she could care less about what Lila was or wasn’t told, Charlie set about her own agenda, “How old are you?”

“Ten.” The confused girl responded looking towards her brother for support to the odd question. Cooper just nodded his head, cueing Lila to engage in the conversation.

Getting closer to Lila in what could be interpreted as a confrontational manner she questioned, “Me too, when is your birthday?”

“June 3rd, 2008.” Lila answered cautiously still unsure about her new-found sibling. Charlie’s body language was sending warning signals to Lila’s brain.

Satisfied with the answer, Charlie seemed to relax her aggressive stance, and then bragged, “Mine is May 18th. I’m older.”

“By like two weeks.” Pepper pointed out.

Quickly waving off the minor detail that reminded Pepper of a move Tony would make, Charlie proclaimed, “Still, I am the older sister.”

Dumbfounded by the topic of choice, Steve inquired to Charlie, “Is there a reason this conversation has to take place right now?”

Charlie seemed to actually puff out her chest, “I’m asserting my dominance. Logan says you have to do that in groups.”

“This isn’t a prison yard young lady, it’s a family. Calm down.” Steve countered while he suppressed a laugh. He and Nat needed to get back into the field. There was still the matter of one more Barton child to find and a terrorist organization to take out.

“It’s her first time out.” The Professor rationalized for his student to the others, “Charlotte please come here.” Charlie did as she was told and followed the Professor as he distanced himself from the rest of the group, so he and Charlotte could speak privately. Happy with the space between them to avoid anyone overhearing, Xavier took Charlie’s hands and looked her in the eyes, “Charlotte, remember when your mother was shot, how you felt?”

“Scared.” Charlie admitted breaking off the eye contact to look away, having learned long ago that lying was pointless when speaking with the Professor.

Moving his head to force the eye contact again, Xavier advised with a sad smile, “Yes, you were scared. Lila is feeling the same way right now.” He explained looking over at the young blonde girl. Releasing Charlotte’s hands, he gently nudged her towards Lila, “Go over and say something comforting to your younger sister to make her feel better.”

With heavy stomps to emphasize the point that she was not happy with the directions she was given, Charlie walked back over and stood in front of Lila. With a final look to the Professor who nodded at her to go on, Charlie did her best attempt of ‘comforting’, “I’m sure it will be quick, and your mom won’t suffer a lot.”

“Charlotte!!” The Professor uncharacteristically yelled at the girl over the loud cries of her sister, shocked by the blunt statement.

Throwing her arms up in frustration, the girl called back to her teacher, “You said to say something comforting.”

Natasha leaned in to Steve and whispered, “I know an Aunt shouldn’t have favorites, but Charlie just may be mine.”

“That was unacceptable.” Cooper scolded Charlie, repeating his father’s words to him when he said something like that to Lila days ago. “You can’t say things like that.”

Pepper in all the chaos had pulled Lila to her to try to somehow calm the child down and stop the tears. “Lila, Charlie didn’t mean that. Did you Charlie?” Pepper scowled at Charlie with her best attempt of being an authoritarian to the girl. Realizing that the chances of Charlie withdrawing her comment were slim to none, Pepper returned her attention to the traumatized girl in her arms, “Are you alright?”

“I’m cold.” Lila whispered, but the sound carried throughout the metal chamber of the jet for all to hear.

Pepper passed Lila back to her brother and reached up into a compartment to pull out a gray blanket. During the flight, Storm and Scott instructed Pepper on where assorted items were located, in case a need arose. With the blanket in hand, Pepper went back to where Cooper and Lila were standing and wrapped the girl up in it. “Are you warm now sweetie?”

 Moving her head in affirmation, then burying it into her brother’s chest as he led her to a seat Lila said, “It’s scratchy, wish I had my blanket.”

Cooper explained for the individuals who didn’t understand what his sister was talking about, “She had a purple furry blanket at home that she uses.” Then he remembered seeing a similar item in Charlie’s room, “Like that pink one you have back at the school.”

“The one your daddy brought you back for your birthday?” Natasha knew exactly which blanket Cooper was referring to. Clint missed Lila’s birthday a few years ago, and when he finally returned, he gifted her with the blanket. Clint told her that whenever she missed him to wrap herself up in it and it would be like daddy giving her a hug. Thankfully it was one of the items Tony brought back with him after his final sweep of the Barton home looking for personal items. The other day when Natasha took Lila up for a bath following her walk and talk with Clint, Lila remained in the blanket for the rest of the day. It did surprise Natasha that Laura didn’t grab it when she grabbed the girl, everyone knew how much Lila loved that blanket. The time constraints with the abductions must have been tight for them to leave without such a precious item, that or Laura didn’t want the reminder of what the blanket represented to Lila of her relationship with Clint. Either way in Natasha’s mind, shitty parenting.

“We have to go.” Steve told Natasha, breaking her from her thoughts. The children were safe with Pepper and Xavier. They still had a job to do. With one final look towards the children, Natasha followed Steve off the jet and started back towards the HYDRA base.

Charlie watched the doors close again then turned to Cooper and Lila, “What kind of purple?” she asked rejoining the conversation after she was ostracized by her last comment. Not receiving an immediate answer, she rephrased, “What shade of purple is your blanket?”

“Lilac.” Lila informed lifting her head just enough to answer the question then put it back down.

“That’s my mom’s favorite flower and color.” Charlie volunteered, sounding for the first time friendly towards her sister. That little bit of information Pepper tucked away for later use as the girl continued. “She always wears lilac perfume.” Charlie turned to the Professor. He knew what she was thinking and silently gave his approval with a smile. Charlie held her hands out and suddenly a folded lilac colored faux fur throw blanket appeared. Drawing nearer to Lila, Charlie pushed the blanket at her, causing the wrapped child to reemerge from her cocoon, “It’s not the one you have, it’s a new one.”

“It looks just like mine. How did you do that?” Lila asked in wonder, sitting up to accept the gift.

“It’s what I do. Is the blanket alright?” Charlie asked. She knew deep down that she had crossed the line from being irritating to mean with telling Lila that her mom was probably going to die and wanted to do something to make her feel better.

Shedding the scratchy gray blanket onto the floor in a heap, Lila wrapped herself in the new blanket. “Thank you, Charlie.”

Looking to Cooper, he grinned at Charlie’s actions approvingly, and once again wrapped his arms around Lila. Pleased that she made her siblings happy Charlie responded, “You’re welcome Lila.”

Pushing her luck, Lila said with sly intent, “Now I wish I had my puppy.”

Charlie’s eyes widen in excitement, “What kind of puppy?”

Professor Xavier was quick on the draw, knowing what was about to happen, “Charlotte, no. Just no.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, comments and kudos are needed and appreciated. CP


	29. Chapter Twenty-Eight ~ Damaged Foundation

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Damaged Foundation

Every corridor was the same, nothing separated their current location from the other hallway of the top two stories of the facility. Since both floors were identical, Clint and Kate returned to the third floor to start clearing the rooms. There weren’t any physical security measures enforced on either floor. It was a guarantee that there was a security system for this area, doubtlessly for the purpose of monitoring who was coming and going within the halls, but Tony had shut that down some time ago. Unlike the first floor, there were not any guards directed to secure this area.  All the information gave the impression of whatever was housed at the top wasn’t vital to the day-to-day operations of the terrorist facility.  

Clint slung his bow over his shoulder and pulled out a knife. With so many doors leading to unknown areas, anyone could get the drop on them in such close proximity that would make using a bow in any efficient way impossible. Kate kept her bow in hand knowing that one of them needed to have fast access to a long-range defense. Between the two of them, they should be able to secure the hallway against any appearance of HYDRA agents, despite which side they came from.

“One at a time?” Kate asked lacking any alternative to ensuring their mission objectives.

Annoyed with the time it will take, but seeing no other way, Clint answered, “Seems like the only way. Tony, Rhodey, and Sam are the only ones with thermal imaging abilities and they are…busy.”

Reaching behind her, Kate grabbed an arrow, “You open the doors and I cover?”

“Just like the good ol’ days.” Clint observed as he positioned himself against the wall and placed his hand on the doorknob.

“And look where that got us.” Kate said as she nocked an arrow, drew back and gestured towards the first door for him to open.

Clint turned the knob and threw the door wide open and once again placed his body tightly against the hallway. Kate quickly moved towards the door frame to scan the room. The room was obviously someone’s living quarters. The accommodations bared a resemblance to the type of hotel room a high roller in Las Vegas would be given as a bribe to keep spending their money. The floors were a light-colored marble which perfectly complemented the dull green walls. The room opened to a living area with dark navy sofas and matching chairs. The coffee and end tables were all glass with silver fixtures. The right side of the room was a small kitchenette, separated from the living area by a countertop that matched the floor. A hallway was to the left of the kitchen towards the back of the quarters. Clint put away his knife and pulled out his sidearm, switching off the safety he used his left hand to hold the gun and his right to cup the bottom, steadying his aim. He moved past Kate and signaled for her to follow as he made his way to the hallway. Kate provided coverage for both Clint and the open entryway, as Clint cleared the bathroom and bedroom, no one was there.

Walking back through the living area to reenter the hallway, both Kate and Clint jumped a bit when Steve’s voice came to life over the comm units intruding the silence, _“Reports?”_

_~~~_

Tony was the first to report in, “A lot of old people, most don’t even know where they are. At least that is the story they are giving S.H.I.E.L.D. Haven’t found any heavy hitters yet. Rhodey and I are working our way deeper into the center of operations.”

“We have met some fire at the southwest entrance. This place is like a big rounded maze. I think this is where the fight is. There not being an entrance and how hard they came at us, this is definitely where your heavy hitters are if I was a betting man.” Scott explained as he adjusted his visor once again to a higher setting in order to take out a load bearing pillar which caused the supporting beam across the room to collapse on four incoming HYDRA guards.

Logan ran towards two agents with his claws extended. He only stopped with the physical barrier of both men being skewered onto his claws. With a third coming at him from the left, he turned and threw the impaled goon on his right hand into the oncoming threat rendering the man unconscious on the ground, trapped beneath the body of his partner.  With one hand free now, he was able to push the second speared agent off his left hand on the pile he had created and stepped over their bodies. He took a whiff of the air to gauge where to go to next.

Tony had FRIDAY bring up the blueprints that S.H.I.E.L.D. had on the base. There was no way to know for sure that the layout was the same as it was back when the blueprints were developed, which had already been proven by the lack of a southern entrance, but the structural components should be the same. “Sounds like you are having all the fun. I’m looking at the blue prints now. If that was a support beam I just heard crash, then I have a good idea where you are at. There are only so many of those exposed for you to be able to pull down. You and Logan keep moving inward, Rhodes and I should be able to come up from behind and we can box them in.”

Following Logan further into the labyrinth, Scott confirmed the plan, “Sounds good, meet you there.”

~~~

Vision spoke up next regarding his current location and activities, “Sam, and I are scanning the perimeter for anyone trying to escape capture. So far, we have immobilized a few HYDRA personnel. They are mostly scientist and technicians trying to save their research. Storm is running down anyone who gets past us and turning them over to S.H.I.E.L.D.  Wanda is providing a holding center for the captured agents and keeping watch.”

“Romanoff and I just dropped Lila off with Pepper. Vision stay on perimeter watch, Sam, can you find us a clear entry point near the X-Men?” Steve asked as he and Natasha were running back from the plane to the southwest entrance to the compound.

“On it.” Sam responded as he turned direction in flight to accommodate Steve’s request.

“Clint? Kate?” Steve asked. “Report in.”  Steve had reservations of leaving them alone in the compound to continue the search. In his opinion, they were both too close to the situation to be trusted enough to follow the plan. Having already seen Clint kill four people who were standing between him and his daughter. Rodgers had concerns about the casualty list growing in the search for Nathaniel. He didn’t know Kate at all beside the basic bio stuff. She was pulling her weight on the mission and had already proven to be an excellent marksman. The apprehension was that Steve didn’t know if she would be a calming effect on Clint and cause him to think before he acted, or someone who would escalate his drive for revenge and taking out anyone in his way. The way things could go down were on the two opposite ends of the spectrum, and that uncertainty of what actions two members of his team could go with weighed heavily on him.

Clint informed as he took his place against the wall again preparing to infiltrate the second door in the hallway, “Looks like Kate and I are in the residential area of the base. So far, it is just her and I up here. Security hasn’t shown up yet if they will at all. We are just going to clear the rooms, seeing if by chance the room Lila was talking about that Laura was taking Nate for a nap in is one of these.  There’s about a dozen rooms we have to check out on this floor and another twelve on the fourth.”

Rogers stopped running in case he needed to change directions, Natasha followed suit. “Can you two handle it or do we need to come to you?”

Kate permitted the scoffing of aide in clearing empty rooms to carry in her voice over comms, “We are already approximately nine percent done, easy breezy.”

“Math nerd.” Clint kidded towards his wife that got him a smile for his efforts at comic relief in this stressful time. Then he returned to the question that was asked by Steve, knowing that while the others on comm may understand Kate’s interpretation of ‘we are good, don’t need help’, Steve may not completely understand it and is staying quiet hoping someone will fill in the blanks.  “Currently we have it I think. That may change once we find Nate, depending on who we find him with.”

“Check,” Steve replied, still trying to comprehend what Kate was talking about with percentages and the wind. “We are going to continue towards the X-Men’s entrance and assist there. Let us know if you two run into some trouble or need assistance with egress. You need to call in if you have both Nathaniel and Laura with you. That will be a fire fight trying to get out.”

“I think it is going to be a fire fight trying to get in personally.” Kate commented in a low voice, forgetting that whispering and talking under your breath doesn’t work with a communication unit.

“I certainly hope it is not a fight, especially if Nate is present.” Natasha responded feeling as uneasy as Steve did about leaving the Bartons alone to search for the missing toddler. However, unlike Steve, Nat’s apprehension wasn’t due to the means she knew Clint would use in order to save his child, or the influence Kate’s involvement in the matter would be. Natasha was worried about the confrontation between Kate, Clint and Laura that was undoubtedly about to happen, especially if Nate was caught in the middle. Natasha had known Clint a long time but had no idea what he would do in that high-risk scenario.

~~~

Tony on the other hand had absolutely no reservations at all of Clint and Kate taking on the duty of finding the children. In his mind, they were the best people to oversee such a sensitive assignment. He understood more than anyone the need to be on the front line in the search for a missing child.  “Let me know if you need some back up, I think that I can get there faster than anyone else can.” Tony offered while he scanned the closed off room he and Rhodey were in for any hidden entrances. From within his helmet, Tony could see that FRIDAY was indicating something in the far-left corner of the room. The screen display changed to infrared, accentuating an area with readings being shown for air current, temperature, and heat markers. A quick reading of the data directed to him a simple conclusion, there were people behind the wall.

Once FRIDAY collected all the necessary data and ran it through filters to narrow down the questioned part of the wall, the highlighted area altered into a more specific outline that was shaped like a door frame. Silently gaining Rhodey’s attention, Tony pointed to the zone of the wall in question. Rhodes, having similar equipment, just not as complex as Tony’s, was able to get a similar reading off his program that there were heat signatures behind the stone. Both men started to feel the wall, searching for some type of handle, knob, or trigger that would allow them access to the hidden room.

Knowing that it was not going to be as simple as turning a knob or handle, but at least they tried, the men started to push at the random stone blocks that made up the cold thick wall. Rhodey jumped back at least three feet when the section of wall he was feeling around let off a red glow and released a shock. The jolt would have surely killed him if he wasn’t in the War Machine armor, which insulated him. “Damn!” He called out in both surprise and pain.

Watching Rhodey shoot back was as much as a scare to Tony as it was to Rhodes. He had turned off the security system, the only electricity that was running on the base was for lighting and central air. The mainframes should have been shut down when they entered the building. That could only mean that there was yet another operating system that was completely off the grid, and it was obviously still up and working at full capacity. Tony went to his best friend’s side and had FRIDAY run Rhodes’ vitals in case of injury. A flashing ‘NO INJURIES DETECTED’ displayed on Tony’s screen, as he watched the man compose himself and indicated that he was fine by pushing Tony off him. Satisfied that Rhodey was all right, Tony turned back to the wall and examined the four by four tile that had illuminated red prior to the energy release. “Hate to tell you this Rhodey, but I think you tripped their alarm.”

Shaking off the small amount of pain that went along with the HYDRA failed attempt of an electrocution, Rhodey observed, “Yeah, I got that by the red warning light and tasering, thought you said that you shut down the system?” Tony shrugged at the comment, taking a deep breath Rhodey asked more motivated than ever to catch these people “So, what’s the plan?”

Grabbing Rhodey by the metal encased arm, Tony positioned him next to himself in front of the invisible entrance. “At this point, I say let’s go in hot. They know we are here, and now they know we are outside the door.”

The sound of both the War Machine and Ironman armor charging up the hand repulsors resonated in the empty room. Tony counted down from three and blasted the concealed door open. Filling both the room they were in and the recently discovered one up with dust and debris. Entering they were met with gun fire. Bullets bounced off the armor of both suits and the men continued their journey into the room. Before being able to switch over to thermal imaging, the sound of something heavy sliding was heard by Tony. He assumed it was a second door that the room’s occupants had used to escape, not knowing that the X-Men would be on the other side waiting to welcome them. Once the air cleared from the explosion, Tony was able to see who was shooting at them. There were about seven agents with guns drawn in their directions. Rhodey returned fire into the agents, rendering them immobilized with a variety of injuries to both their bodies and weapons. Tony, seeing that Rhodes had the agents under control, walked further into the room.

First sight led him to believe that they were in the command center of the terrorist base. Monitors and control panels occupied the room. Other than the unconscious guards that Rhodey had taken out, the room was empty. Opposite the wall from where he and Rhodes entered, there was just as Tony suspected, another doorway that was left open in the user’s hast to evacuate. “Hey Scott, we just stumbled into the control center. The heavy hitters I was looking for earlier are coming right at you. Vision and Sam, I need you ready and watching in case there is a secret exit to outside the building. If there is such an exit, it would be around the south side of the complex.”

Sam responded back as he set off from the southside of the base, _“Moving into position now, will keep you apprised of the situation.”_

“Finally, a good fight. I have a lot of frustration to work through, and a fight is just what the doctor ordered,” Logan commented as he clutched his fists, so his claws could extend in anticipation of the crowd coming at him.

Turning to look at the Wolverine who was standing next to him as they were waiting for the party to start, Scott asked, “What have we been doing this whole time, ballet?”

_“Just a kindly reminder, we do need as many of them alive as possible.”_ Nick advise but knew was useless.

Releasing a smile that would send a shiver down the spine of the devil himself Logan responded smugly as he readied himself for the fight, “We’ll see.”

~~~

The routine was getting old fast. Every time was the same, Kate would take point with the bow and Clint would open the door and follow her in. Then they would switch positions, so Clint could check out the back rooms. So far, each of the eight rooms they had checked were empty of anyone. There were little personal touches here and there to drive home the point that it was a retirement community where people lived.

When photos or small items were present, it took longer to clear the room. Kate had to stand guard while Clint checked out each picture to see if it was of his family in case it was Laura’s quarters after all. The one thing they had yet to come across were any children’s items. So far it appeared that Laura and her children were the only young family residing on the property. There was the matter of the four other children found in the nursery where Lila was, but either they hadn’t come across those families’ residence yet, or they lived off base. The lack of anyone on the floor was concerning to Kate, but Clint assumed it was due to most of the occupants being older and downstairs when Stark apprehended the Bingo hall.

Now at the ninth door Kate wearily gestured for him to allow her access to the living quarters. Her arms were getting fatigued with the repetitive drawing of the bow. While over the past decade she had made archery a priority if for nothing else as a stress reliver and daily exercise, it was nothing compared to bow use during a mission. Kate also knew Clint and knew that he was itching to draw his own again. The man was beyond frustrated at the situation, and she remembered that he could be calmed easily by just slipping a bow into his hand. It was the equivalent of a comfort blanket for him. When he had it, he knew he had control, he knew he wouldn’t miss and knew it was safe. She decided that after this room, despite the fact she hadn’t shot a gun since the wipe, she and Clint would change positions to the benefit of everyone.

As they went through the motions yet again for the ninth time, Kate saw Clint’s demeaner change drastically once he followed her into the living quarters. This room was different. There were suitcases and backpacks on the couch, as if whoever resided here had just arrived and hadn’t had the opportunity to unpack yet. Like someone traveling with two small children after a very long commercial flight from New York to Australia for example. Laura wasn’t important enough to HYDRA to send a private plane for, not when the agency was busy trying to get the, as Tony phrased it, ‘heavy hitters’ safely here to protect their assets and secrets. A flight wouldn’t be a problem for Laura, no one would question her boarding a commercial international flight with two children she had the proper identification for.

Clint holstered his gun and readied his bow. He was aware just as Kate was, someone was home. And that someone was probably Laura and Nate. “You stay out here.” Clint whispered. “Block the door in case she gets by me.”

Kate didn’t like the idea of him going in alone but understood this was something he had to do. The risks to the toddler were too great if Kate went in there with him. Laura may act out against the woman whose life she had stolen. Kate backed herself against the wall in the kitchen that opened into the hallway. If Laura was able to somehow get pass Clint, she would not see Kate until it was too late. 

Trusting Kate to continue covering him if the need arose, Clint walked down the hallway to the bedroom. Soundlessly entering the room, Clint saw her. Laura’s back was to him as she was leaning over the bed putting socks on a sleeping Nate. The breath of relief from seeing his son was louder then he intended for it to be, because he saw a little jerk in Laura’s shoulders in response to the sound.

“I was wondering when you would show up. I must admit it was faster than I thought. Tony use the cradle again on you?” She asked without turning around, still messing with Nate’s uncovered right foot.

Setting his bow down onto the dresser that was nearby, Clint made a show of disarming, “Yeah, lucky for me that Dr. Cho was in town.” He answered as he scanned the room for any possible dangers.

“There’s nothing in here to help or hurt you, so save your energy.” Laura explained once she turned around and saw what he was doing.

Cautiously with a slow pace, Clint inched himself nearer to the bed where his sleeping son was. If he could just grab Nate and get out, then this wouldn’t have to go down the way Kate had predicted. Once he was far enough away and sure his son was safe he would call into Fury to send someone to take Laura in.

Laura saw what Clint was trying to do and rooted herself to the ground. He would have to go through her to get Nathanial.  “I take it that by you being up here, you have already gotten Lila?”

Clint confirmed her assumption with a bob of his head, “You shouldn’t have done this Laura. You know what, hold up. Before we go any further, is that even your real name? Just want to know if that was the one truth you told me or just another lie I brought.”

“Does it matter now?” She asked curious what having such knowledge accomplished at this point, after everything that had happened. “But, yes, that is my real name.”

Clint caught sight of one of Lila’s shoes sticking half way out underneath the dresser he had put his bow on. Thinking back, he struggled to remember if Lila had shoes on when she went off with Steve and Nat. Bending down to retrieve it he continued with his questions, “So, what did they give you? A pin, big promotion, cash bonus? What is the prize for a decade long, mildly successful con?”

“Well, I don’t have to worry about money, but it wasn’t what I wanted in the end.” Laura confessed sitting down at the end of the bed, still acting as a physical barrier between Nate and Clint. “It may have started out like that, wealth and being a high-ranking agent, but,” she rubbed the back of her hand against Nate’s cheek, “but that’s not how it ended.”

Twisting the shoe lace around his finger, unwrapping it, then repeating the motion, Clint agreed, “No, that’s not how it ended.”

“How does this end Clint?” She asked looking up at him with her big brown eyes, the same as Nate’s.

Clint paused to remind himself that Laura was the enemy. His brain fully comprehended this concept, but his heart and soul blatantly refused to cooperate with the idea. Seeing her sitting there, caring for Nate, all he could do was remember her as his wife and mother of his children. Clint was by no means a religious man, it kind of went against everything he did for a living, but he found himself at that moment praying for a way out of the hell he was in. “That depends on you Laura. The best option for Nate would be for you to just hand him to me now and let me walk out that door. We will be ‘wheels up’ and in the air before he even wakes up.”

“Who is ‘we’?” She questioned. There was no way in hell that Clint was going to get his so called ‘best option’, but out of both necessity of understanding completely the danger she was in, and curious to know who made the cut for the ‘team’, she needed to know.

Still moving closer, Clint informed her just who and what she was up against. “The Avengers, X-Men, and of course, S.H.I.E.L.D. You and your people made a lot of people upset.” He had slowly made his way to right in front of her. Looking down at her, he locked eyes. His mind without his consent started to play every moment of the last ten years of when they had held each other’s gaze. Mission aside, he needed closure on the decade of lies, “Why did you do it? Was it all a mission?”

Laura knew how to play on Clint’s emotions, she had been doing it long enough.  She also knew how to get him to take the bait, “No, it wasn’t all a mission. I could have ended the mission years ago, but I didn’t.”

“What are you talking about? Ended the mission, how?” Clint demanded.

Giving Clint the needed information about choices that were made for him and his children without his input, Laura filled him in, “After the Battle of New York. I was told the mission was over. After what happened with Loki, you would never be the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. I was needed elsewhere.”

Clint hated the he was unable to keep the hurt out of his voice, “Then why didn’t you go then?”

Laura had always gotten what she wanted and was sure this time was not going to be any different. She had him curious, now she needed him wanting, “Because I didn’t want to. I convinced them to keep me in play. I sold them on me remaining undercover to get information on both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers.” Standing up she was almost right up against Clint, “It started as a mission, then became something…more.” Laura casted her eyes downward and then brought them back up to meet Clint’s, “Can’t you forgive me and let us move on with our family?”

Looking away briefly, Clint looked down at his son then returned to his mother’s stare. “I could forgive the mother of my children. I could do that for my children, because they need me to. However, the HYDRA agent who masqueraded as my wife for ten years, the person who fed me stories of how we met, how we fell in love? The person who betrayed me with secrets I told her in bed, and reported back every time I invited someone over for dinner, that person? I could never forgive her.”

Laura attempted to sound logical, but it only came out as a plead when she spoke, “They are the same person Clint. You can’t forgive one and not the other.”

Clint embraced the feeling that filled him, it was what he needed, closure. With a calm clarity that surprised him, he explained, “Not to me. They can’t be. Not in order for me to keep going.”

“So, the past ten years, you are just going to walk away from that, from us?” Laura asked, shocked by the dismissal effort by her husband.

Whatever calming method he had been using seconds ago was gone with Laura’s try at a guilt trip against him, “There is no ‘us’! That was a lie you told to maintain a cover, just like our son,” Clint pointed to the still sleeping Nate, “was a cover after you tried to get Nick killed.”

“Don’t you dare speak like that about my son. He was more, so much more, than a cover deepening device. He was the product of us Clint.” Laura challenged, matching Clint’s heighten volume which caused them both to freeze when Nate started to stir but never fully woke up. 

Confident that the toddler wasn’t going to wake up, probably due to jet lag, Clint discounted Laura’s last remark, “I get biology Laura, thanks. However, I’m done buying your stories. You were never out for our family, you proved that the night you killed my security detail and poisoned the children. Then when I thought it couldn’t possibly get any worst then that, you again poisoned the kids with knock out gas and took two of them!”

Accepting that Clint had a few sound points regarding their conflicts, she acknowledged, “We have issues to work through, I’m not denying that. But its ten years we are talking about here Clint, ten years, and you want to walk away from that.”

Bringing his hand to his face, Clint placed his forefinger on one side of the top of his nose, and his thumb on the other, massaging it. “It’s not just ten years Laura, you gave me an alternate reality that had nothing real in it. A world you fabricated on the orders of a terrorist organization to damage the first line of defense for the world’s safety and security. You did it to take down S.H.I.E.L.D. from the inside.”

“It was all real Clint.” Self-correcting, she added, “Maybe not in the beginning, but it became our reality. You, me, Cooper, Lila, and Nate. We are real.” She reached out and took his hand and held it. “We can still be real.”

Dislodging his hand out of Laura’s grasp, he took a moment then called her out on their ‘family’, “You stole a child from another woman, two if you count whoever is really Lila’s mother.”

“I am Lila’s real mother.” She defended, “She may not be ours biologically, but I am the only mother she has ever known. Her and Cooper both.”

“If you have such motherly love for Cooper, why didn’t you take him when you attacked the Avenger’s compound and grabbed Nate and Lila? Why was he left behind?” Clint knew the answer, but wanted to hear her say it, wanted to hear her acknowledge that she made more than one deal with the devil.

Shaking her head at her maternal failure, one of many in the past week she disclosed, “It killed me Clint, but I couldn’t. It wasn’t just me invested in the kids. It was only going to be for a little bit, then I would have him back.”

“Derek Bishop.” Clint stated in a cold voice as all the pieces of the puzzle came together. “You knew he was sending Ross to kill Kate and me. You knew the children would be at the compound with minimum security. A dual strike that would get him custody of Cooper. Derek had no intention of actually taking in Cooper, did he? Once he had conservatorship of the trust funds, he would give him over to you to take care of.”

“But you didn’t die Clint.” Laura tried to reassure him by stating the obvious. “I made mistakes, but I did it for our family. My cover was blown, I had to get out of there. I knew you would take care of the kids and bring them to New York, I just needed to lay low for a few days and come up with the best plan for us all to be together again. A plan for us to start a new life. I hated what I had to do at home that night to the children, but it was only a little something to get them to sleep so you would be distracted while I got away.”

“You almost killed Lila!” Clint said in a hushed yell with rage filling his eyes.

Any color in Laura’s complexion drained with that revelation, “What?”

Checking himself that he was in control of his emotions before he started yelling, he explained what happened, “You gave her too much of the medication Laura. She was in the hospital while the doctors checked her for organ damage.”

With scared eyes she accused, “No, you’re lying.”

In a condescending manner he reminded her, “I’m not the liar in this ‘marriage’. And you know me, you pride yourself on that, you know I would never lie about something like this.”

“Where is she now?” The tone Laura was using alerted Clint that they were approaching a dangerous area.

“Far away from you. And it will remain that way.” Clint told her bluntly, there was no point anymore in dancing around the topic of Laura’s future in the children’s lives.

“Clint don’t do this.” Laura begged, “I am their mother. I am your wife. We can get past this. I knew you were going to come here. I didn’t even unpack.” She pointed towards the hallway that led to the living room where the luggage was. “We just needed to meet up and regroup. We will find somewhere to go, somewhere we can lay down a foundation and start anew. We can make a home together again.”

 “If the foundation is damaged, the house is condemned.” He said looking to Nate once again, not able to look her in the eyes and tell her that any hopes she had of walking away from this with any resemblances to what they had were impossible.

“Ten years Clint.” She repeated acting as if this time he would give in, “That is what you are ending. For what? To go back to a woman, you were with for what, four years before the wipe separated you two?” Laura had read both Clint and Kate’s personnel S.H.I.E.L.D. files prior to the wipe that eliminated Kate’s and altered Clint’s. She needed to know every letter typed in those files to pull off the mission that she did. Now those little details were coming back to aide her.

“Closer to five.” Clint corrected without thought.

Taken aback by the correction, Laura thought about what he said and voiced her conclusion. “So, he did it. Tony found a way to reverse the wipe?”

Putting his hands on his hips, Clint found a spot on the drapes covering the far window and spoke to it. “Yes, he did.”

“So, what happens now? You and Kate go off into the sunset with my children and play happy family?” She asked derisively.

“You did it to her first Laura, don’t act like the victim.” Clint knew it was a low blow. There were no winners in this mess. He lost when his wife and child along with any memories associated with them were seized. Kate lost when she walked into the Sandbox thinking she was just going to hack a system and get out, starting her maternity leave after the debriefing. Laura lost when she took an assignment and became emotionally attached to the mission. He couldn’t help but feel like the bad guy. Here he was ripping children away from their mother, the very reason this all started. He didn’t want to feel sorry for Laura but wasn’t able to push away the feeling. She was right, they had ten years together. Ten years that even though the truth has come out, was still his life.

She saw it. There was a brief look in Clint’s eyes that told Laura from years of experience she had broken through to him. He was having second thoughts about what his objectives were in this room. There was still a way out of this, and a way to get what she wanted, “Is she here?”

“Who?” Clint didn’t know if she was speaking about Kate or Lila.

Picking up Nate, Laura rested him against her chest and walked to the corner by the nightstand. “Kate, who else? Did she come with you?”

Watching Laura move with Nate caused Clint to tense up, but upon a quick inspection he saw there was nowhere for her to go. He was blocking any way to the door, and the only other option was the window. Not seeing a reason to lie, he told her where Kate was, “She is in the living room.” Laura bent down, “What are you doing.”

“Calm down, just getting the diaper bag.” She commented with a flash of a smile. Seeing Nate lift his head, the movement waking him, Laura told her son, “Nate, see who’s here? It’s daddy.”

Still waking up, Clint could see that Nate was confused by the new environment but relaxed when he saw his father. With excitement of his discovery, he held out his arms, “Daddy, want up.”

Clint moved closer, “Hey buddy. You want daddy? Come on, I’ll pick you up.”

Laura’s hold on the child tightened, “No Nate, you’re not going to daddy right now. You need to be changed,” She said as a deception to keep a hold of the boy. Over Nate’s loud protests, Laura demanded, “Bring her in here.”

“Not going to happen.” Clint said as he saw the wheels in Laura’s head turn. Whatever she was planning as a way to get out with his son wasn’t going to work, it was time to end it. “Laura, it’s over. We’ve got you. Just hand me Nate now and let S.H.I.E.L.D. take you in.”

“The only person I will hand my son over to is her. Like you said, ‘I did it to her first’.” Slinging the diaper bag over her shoulder, she called out, “Kate, come in here please.”

“Don’t do it.” Clint ordered into the device located in his ear.

_“What are the chances of her actually handing him over to me?”_ Kate questioned.

“A snowball’s chance in hell.” Clint answered watching Laura’s every move.

Steve piped in next, everyone had heard the conversation between Clint and Laura, but stayed silent to let the man work through it without a hundred different voices in his ear telling him what to do. Steve and Natasha had yet to reach Logan and Scott, so if it was needed, they could still make it back to the north side to offer aide.  “ _Is she armed?”_

Not caring that Laura was listening to every word he said he continued with the electronic conversation, “I can’t confirm either way, but it’s highly likely.”

“Kate, come on. This whole hiding in the other room thing isn’t really S.H.I.E.L.D. caliber stuff.” Laura shouted past Clint.

The words that Clint had been dreading to hear from his wife since he entered the bedroom were finally heard, _“Going in.”_

Clint felt Kate’s presence before he heard her. She reached up and tapped his shoulder, a common technique used by agents to inform another that they had a ‘friendly’ coming from behind them. Shifting himself so that he and Kate were shoulder to shoulder, enlarging the barrier between Laura and the door, and at the same time creating the appearance of a united front against her. Kate had her bow in her right hand and an arrow in the left, looking to be ready to nock up at a moment’s notice.

Laura exuded a warm and familiar vibe, as if she was welcoming an old friend into her kitchen back at the farm. “Kate, it’s a pleasure to finally meet the second Mrs. Barton after all these years. Heard a lot about you, not from Clint of course, but your father always spoke of you.”

There were many nasty and sarcastic comments running through Kate’s mind to come back at that remark with, but she settled on one that would get to the heart of the matter. Matching Laura’s warm intonation, Kate pleasantly mocked, “Oh honey, I’m not the second Mrs. Barton.” Then swiftly changed into an icy tone as she moved closer to the pretender, “Bitch, I’m the original.”

_“That’s my girl! Kick her ass!”_ Tony proudly proclaimed.

Seeing Clint’s youngest child for the first time, Kate asked Laura, “What is he, around three years old? It’s sad when a group of people decide that a three-year-old boy must be torn away from his mother and placed elsewhere.”

With a quick glance to her son, Laura shot back, dropping the mid-western farm wife persona, “That, and I don’t like people taking my stuff.”

“That we can agree on.” Kate remarked knowing that Laura understood her meaning. “So, here is what is going to happen, you are going to hand the child over to his father, and then we can get on with this.”

Laura reached into the diaper bag without looking and produced a gun. Neither Clint or Kate were surprised by its appearance, just waiting for it to happen. Clint refused to draw any of the numerous weapons that were on his body in front of Nate. Kate didn’t have such restraint and grabbed an arrow and aimed her bow back at Laura just in time for Laura to say, “You can have my son over my cold dead body.”

Realizing that a fight was going to happen and in the presence of Nathanial, who was already fussing from being forbade from going to his dad, Clint laid out the truth of the situation, “Laura don’t be stupid. There is no way in hell that I or anyone else is just going to walk away from here without Nate.”

Both trained agents saw it about to happen and were able to move out of the way by the time Laura pull the trigger. The bullet hit the wall a few inches away from Kate’s chest. If she hadn’t moved, it would have been a ‘kill shot’.  Even given what had just happened, Clint still refused to pull out any weapon against Laura in Nate’s company.

“Damn it Clinton!” Kate shouted while glaring down Laura, challenging her to try it again, “Ever since I started to let you hang around me again, people are shooting at me!”

_“Barton, who’s shooting?”_ Tony rushed and concerned voice interrupted.

“Just Laura. She is in the bedroom in the fifth room on the left in the residential hallway if you are coming from the north. Second on the right if you’re coming from the south. She has Nathanial and is not afraid to shoot around him.” Kate reported in while Clint and Laura were having their standoff. Neither one had moved or had spoken a word since the gunshot. Just watching each other, daring their opponent to make the next move. It was doubtful that Laura heard Kate’s reporting over the loud screams of the child in her arms. Clint was so focused on Laura and Nate, Kate wondered if he even heard her.

Tony was still tracking the escapees from the command room, following corridor after corridor trying to find where they retreated to. “Sam, Vision, or Wanda can anyone get to them to help?” 

“On my way.” Wanda answered, and Kate breathed a sigh of relief. Help being on the way, she was able to give her full attention back to the life and death situation that she and Clint were currently in.

“Laura, the gunshot hurt his ears, let’s get him out of here before it goes off again.” Clint beseeched trying to appeal to Laura’s maternal side, the side he had previously disregarded.

Kate had enough. Clint wasn’t going to do anything, he was compromised. He was still of the belief that he would be able to talk Laura down and save Nate.  He clearly wasn’t able to understand that Laura was too far gone for anyone to reason with.  It was one thing for a person to be holding a child hostage, it was another thing entirely to be shooting around said child. The potential risk to the toddler were too high to allow him to remain with his mother. Kate was unsure what Laura would do once reality hit her, and she accepted that she wasn’t leaving this room of her own free will and with her children. She was trying to catch Clint’s eye to signal that she was going for the shot, but he refused to break off eye contact with the HYDRA agent. Laura also seemed to be in her own little world. Feeling the tension of the bow draw Kate inhaled and aimed. Neither Clint nor Laura looked in her direction as she homed in on the target. She sent off a silent prayer with the arrow, that Clint would forgive her for what was about to happen.

The entire thing happened in slow motion. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the wire on Kate’s bow tense, her back muscles tighten and lock. Then she slowed her breathing down and exhaled.  By the time his thought process caught up enough to let him know what was going down, it was too late. She relaxed her hand and Clint watched the arrow fly true to Laura’s chest. He jumped up and over the bed that was the shortest distance between him and his endangered son just in time to see the bedroom window shatter and a red light of energy engulf the room.

Wanda had appeared just in time, using her abilities to place a time suspension orb around Laura and Nathanial. She grabbed Nate from Laura’s clutches and hurried towards Clint. He waved her off and screamed, “Get him out of here now!” Wanda kept moving with the child past the two archers who had moved away from the doorway to allow her passage through. Once Wanda was out of the room, the orb fell, as did Laura’s body.


	30. Chapter Twenty-Nine ~ Martyr for the Cause

 

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Martyr for the Cause

Nathanial’s terrified cries echoed through the apartment. Clint seemed to not have heard the wanting sounds projecting from his youngest child. He kneeled at Laura’s body and reached down to feel for any sign of life. Finding none, he pulled the arrow out of her chest, and threw it to the side. Clint let his head drop and shoulders slumped but refused to allow any tears to fall for the woman who was his wife for ten years and mother to his children. “I know that this was the only way, the only way Lila or Nate would ever be safe, the only way any of us would ever be safe again.” He looked up and over to Kate, “You tried to prepare me for this, I just didn’t listen.”

“You need to go out there and comfort your son.” Kate demanded harshly, to pull Clint out of whatever personal hell he was stuck in. “If the gunshot and broken window didn’t alert every HYDRA agent of our location, his screaming will.” She was trying to make him become Agent Barton, the agent and Avenger, not Clint, the husband and father, if only long enough for them to get the job done. Then once the mission was completed, she would help him get past this as well.

Clint looked towards the doorway where the pleading sounds for him from his son were coming from, finally having the sound register in his mind. This exact scenario was everything he had been trying to avoid since that night at the farm, and he failed. He had failed his family yet again, “I know. I just need a min...,”

Kate cut him off, not wanting to hear whatever his excuse was going to be for remaining by Laura’s body and not going to the child who had just lost his mother. She knew what the real problem was, Clint couldn’t go to Nathanial after what had just happened. He blamed himself for robbing a child of his mother. There was no need for him to carry this burden, and perhaps relieving him of it would expedite them leaving, “When he is old enough to ask, and he will ask Clint. You tell Nathaniel that I did it. Laura’s blood isn’t on your hands. It was me. I made the call.” Clint was motionless, so Kate appealed to the S.H.I.E.L.D. training and commands engraved into Clint’s head. “Come on Hawkeye, mission isn’t done yet.” Not being able to emotionally handle her husband’s response or watch him grieving over the body of his dead HYDRA wife, she left the room.

Entering the living area of the quarters that Laura had been using, Kate saw Wanda sitting on the sofa with a red-faced Nate against her chest. Wanda was whispering comforting coos into his ear and rocking him back and forth as the clearly very strong toddler tried to push himself away from her. Seeing Kate, Wanda got up, “I think it would be better if you took him, he’s scared. The Professor doesn’t want me to do any mind altering here, so I don’t know what to do to comfort him.” It was the first time Kate had gotten a good up-close look at the child. There was a striking resemblance between the boy and his father. The feature that stood out to Kate were the child’s deep brown eyes that were Laura’s. Would she ever be able to look into Nate’s eyes and not see his mother? Kate assessed that Wanda appeared more frighten to be holding the child then the child was. She pushed away all the negative thoughts out of her mind and held out her arms to take him from the Scarlett Witch. Once Wanda had successfully passed off Nate to his step-mother, “I need to get back to Sam and Vision. The team is pushing HYDRA out of the compound and we have to be ready to capture them.”

With a half smirk at the young lady, Kate said, “Well, you go and have fun with that. Thanks for the backup.”

Kate watched as Wanda left. It would have been much easier for her to take the window again, but she was trying to give Clint some privacy. Nathanial had started to calm down a bit, not so much from Kate’s comforting him, but from exhaustion of the events and being passed off to so many people. She heard a deep yawn and felt the weight of a tiny head being placed against her shoulder. It was a feeling that she remembered well from her own two, and briefly smiled at the memories it brought back. Instantly, all of Kate’s maternal instincts took over and the child’s wellbeing was at the forefront of her mind. She started to sway right to left slowly to get the child to relax or even better, sleep.

A few moments later she felt a soft touch on her other shoulder and turned to see Clint standing there. He pressed a kiss into her temple and gently took Nate from her. “Thank you.” He said to her as he examined his son for any injury. Neither one of them was sure what exactly he was thanking her for, being the one to kill Laura or taking care of Nate. He then reached up to his ear to switch off the comm unit and gestured for Kate to do the same. When he saw her turn off her unit, he confessed what he could only at best call ‘bad taste’ to say with his son right there and Laura’s body a room away, “This is probably not the best time to talk about this, but I need to know what happens next, where to go from here. I have been living minute to minute it seems for the past week, just taking it as it came, and I can’t do it anymore. I want to make this work Katie-Kate, I really do. I have to know what you are thinking.”

This really wasn’t the best time or place to be having this discussion, Clint was absolutely correct about that. Anyone could walk in at any moment and fire upon them, but Clint needed to have it now it seemed. Kate understood that in a strange way, before all of his family was reunited on the jet, he needed to know what would become of that family. The children would have questions as soon as Clint boarded that jet, and he needed to be able to answer them. Kate got the whole ‘minute-to-minute’ feeling Clint was referring to. She had been doing the same thing, waking up from being shot, running to the courthouse, strategizing, having it out with Tony, now the mission.  Everything was coming at them too fast to even think about what would happen once the world slowed down. If and when this mission was a success, it would be happening very soon. Again, timing wasn’t great, but they needed a plan before four sets of eyes were upon them looking for direction and stability after all that had transpired. Just like in the courtroom, when pressed into a corner, Kate went with the truth, “We’re different people then we were ten years ago Clint.” Kate explained but expanded when she saw the hurt in his eyes, “I’m not saying ‘no’ to us, I’m saying ‘no’ to the us that we were ten years ago. I don’t want to go back to S.H.I.E.L.D.”

The hurt was still there, and appeared in his voice, “You want to stay with the X-Men, remain at the school.”

“I want to stay teaching at the school, I love my job. Four kids Clint, four kids.” Emphasizing the number the second time she said it. “Both of us can’t be in this game with four kids at home. At least at the Xavier School, I’m still fighting the good fight. I’m assisting in supporting and molding children like Charlie and Wanda who have the potential to either harm or help the world due to their abilities, into good people.”

“I believe I made a similar argument ten years ago when it was just one kid and another on the way.” Clint pointed out. “Not about teaching mutants of course, but the idea of one of us stepping down at S.H.I.E.L.D.”

Letting a laugh escape her mouth, Kate sounded offended, “Oh my God. Are you using this conversation to say, ‘I told you so’? Is that really the last thing you want to say to me before HYDRA agents come in here, because that is what is going to happen if we stay here any longer.”

“I know. I just need to get my head together before we finish this mission, and I would never say that to you.” Clint paused, then added because it was doubtful he would ever get another opportunity like this, “I would however say that one of us said that the Sandbox mission would only end in disaster and the other said that they could handle it. That’s all.”

 “I think I handled it just fine. Charlie and I are alright, and we have our memories back.”

With wide eyes at the madness of his wife’s argument Clint lengthened on her point, “Yeah, just fine if you call ‘fine’ one of you having gamma radiation poisoning and requiring medical intervention to remain alive. And the other having the ability to destroy the world if she wanted to.”

 “When you put it like that, there may have been something to your prediction back then.” Kate confessed.

Raising an eyebrow and producing a cocky smile Clint asked, “Are you saying I was right?”

“I physically cannot form those words when they are directed at you, so I would highly suggest you take it as it is. So, because we were out of time an hour ago, I will just make you a deal. We all get out of this alive and the threat against Charlie and the school is taken care of,” taking a deep breath Kate gave Clint the reason he needed to keep fighting, as if the four children’s safety wasn’t enough, “Then you can go ahead and buy that five-bedroom house you want.”

A wide smile spread on Clint’s face and he leaned forward to kiss Kate, this time on the lips, “Deal, let’s get out of here.”

Relieved that they would finally be leaving and getting Nate out of the HYDRA base, Kate led the way to the entrance to back into the hallway.  She got in front of Clint, so she could shield him while they got Nate back to the jet. Pulling an arrow out, Kate hit her comm unit back online, “Sending Clint and Nate to the jet now. The threat against Lila and Nate has been neutralized. I will provide escort.” She knew her meaning would be understood without plainly stating it. Checking the hallway to make sure that it was still empty, Kate gestured to Clint to start moving. She caught herself staring a moment too long at the back of Nate’s head.  Kate would spend the rest of her life lying to herself that she killed Laura in order to protect Nate, and not out of hatred and thirst for revenge against the woman who had taken so much from them.

~~~

“About damn time you decided to rejoin the conversation.” Tony responded upon hearing his daughter finally reporting in.  “I swear Katherine Antonia Stark; don’t you ever switch off your comms again during a mission.”

After a pause Kate came back, _“That’s not my name.”_

“That’s what happens when you go off comms. I don’t make threats, I said if you didn’t come back on by the time I counted to five I would have FRIDAY legally change your name. Bright side, you came back on before I counted again and changed Barton’s.” Tony and Rhodes were closing in on the hot cell of HYDRA higher ups. The heat signature suggested that they were about to encounter a group of agents.  It was a tossup if the cluster was active agents, looking to kill them on sight, or the leaders and top-level operators of the organization. If it wasn’t the ringleader, then the agents would be covering the backs of the personnel who needed protection against anyone who may be coming up from behind, exactly what Tony was doing.   Either way they were closing in on the endgame

Then the tone of Tony’s voice changed as did his focus, wanting to give Kate one last set of instructions before engaging in the coming fight. “Get to the jet and then help the team outside. I think we have everyone here, but just in case help the team get anyone trying to escape.”

Surprisingly, Tony and Rhodes were late to the fight.  Logan and Scott had made first contact with Natasha and Steve trailing closely behind. The only barrier that separated the iron clad Avengers from the battle was one open doorway. Tony could look right through it to see that the two X-Men, Natasha and Steve were already engaged by the team that was trying to get the HYDRA bosses out safely. Tony allowed a brief second to bask in the glow of how well it had all worked out. The plan had gone perfectly, HYDRA walked right into their trap. There was a group on one side and Tony and Rhodes coming from the other. There would be nowhere for the enemy to run once they were boxed in. On each side of the doorway, hiding from the fight’s participants were a few gentlemen cowering. Biding their time, waiting for the HYDRA agents to clear a pathway to freedom. Judging by the fear on their faces, it was evident that the hidden men were taken by surprise by Rhodes and Tony’s arrival.

Tony immediately recognized two of them, “Look who’s here!” Tony announced happily when he saw none other than former Secretary Ross and Derek Bishop among the men waiting to see if the agents would be able to overcome the team mixed of X-Men and Avengers. “Spoiler alert, you lose.” He said as he and Rhodey both faced their hand repulsers towards the men to clarify the message, ‘don’t move, it’s over’.

“How are you doing Cap?” Rhodey asked watching behind him and Tony in case they missed someone.

Throwing his shield against a helmet of one of the HYDRA attackers, the impact was enough to push the man into two other agents. All three fell onto the floor and much to the relief of the first Avenger, stayed down. Steve replied, “Just dandy. Who did you guys find over there?”

Tony answered Steve’s question by calling up to Director Fury. “Nick can we get some of your people in here to take our friends into custody? You probably have files on all of them but the only two I recognize are Ross and Bishop.”

Natasha had one agent on the ground in a hold, pressing a widow bite to his neck, “I’ll go lead them in.” Throwing the motionless HYDRA thug to the side. She got up and ran back the way she and Steve had come in.

“You got the Secretary?” Logan growled as he slashed away the last of the engaged HYDRA agents, clearing the room for S.H.I.E.L.D. to come in. “He’s mine.”

Scott got a hold on Logan, grabbing him by the forearm and pulling him to be face-to-face. “Calm down, we all want a piece of him after what he did at the school, but this isn’t the way.”

“Like hell it isn’t.” Logan yelled into Scott’s face, “He shot Kate and is trying to coax the government to force us into the Accords!” Logan contradicted as he sought to pull his arm away.

Scott refused to allow Logan out of the grip he had on him, knowing that he would only be able to keep it for a moment longer, if he was lucky. Deciding to use his time wisely, he pointed out, “And if he is killed by a mutant or an Avenger, he becomes a martyr for the Accords. Someone else will take up the cause.” Concluding, he released the arm of the Wolverine.

Logan wasn’t listening, just trying to make his way to the doorway that Tony was standing in. He had been keeping watch of the soon to be arrested HYDRA command team with Rhodes on the other side and wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to do when Logan demanded entrance. Luckily, he didn’t have to find out, Steve put himself between Tony and Logan, “Scott is right, Secretary Ross needs to answer for the things he did, to people more powerful than us. The world needs to see the evidence and form their own opinions on the Accords and the people behind it.”

“Could we throw the Wolverine a bone, maybe let him kill Derek? No one knows he was involved but us.” Tony said as the face shield to the suit opened and he pointed to the man huddled in the corner. At the suggestion of his demise at the hand of the Wolverine, Bishop seemed to become even more frightened, if that was possible, with eyes so wide that Tony was certain his eyeballs would roll out.  “And he did order at least two hits on Kate. I’ve missed a few of her birthdays and Christmases… like all of them, so this would be a great present to make up for it.”

Logan didn’t have a problem with the suggestion and started to approached Steve with the body language that screamed ‘move or I’ll move you’. Steve put both hands on Logan’s chest to halt him and called over his shoulder. “Tony why would you even start?”

“Because that’s what Starks do Captain Rogers.” Bishop commented finding strength in what could be his final moments on earth. “They start, but never finish.”

“Go to hell Derek.” Tony yelled back. The comment shouldn’t have affected him like it did, but there was truth to Bishop’s words. “You have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Don’t I? Who are you trying to fool Tony? Tell me, where were you when Kate was born? Her first words or steps? When she lost her mother and needed comforting?”

“Tony don’t participate in this. He is trying to get a rise out of you.” Natasha said returning to the room with S.H.I.E.L.D agents, having heard the start of the budding argument over the comm link.

Acting as if he didn’t hear her, and maybe he didn’t, Tony took the offered bait, “I am willing to bet a lot of money that you weren’t there either for any of those milestones. And as far as comforting her after Elly died, Kate told me you ignored her and set her off to a boarding school in Europe.”

Bishop dismissed the accusation, “She was ten, and under a lot of stress, poor girl doesn’t remember the events correctly.”

“Doesn’t remember you and your other daughter bragging that she was going away? Doesn’t remember being left alone in a big empty house after her mother died with only the household staff as company. Doesn’t remember my father promising…”

“Promising to take her away from me?” A smile appeared on Derek’s face. “You think that Howard never spoke to me about it before he discussed such a serious matter with a child? Do you honestly believe that your father never tried to pursue custody in a legal way in the States before my wife’s body was even cold? Attempted to bribe me with promises that I knew he had no intention of keeping? That his first move was to go to the Bahamas and get some thug criminals that were on his payroll to take Kate away in the dead of night?” Derek started to laugh at the fantasy world Tony had been living in, “Couldn’t have that, now could we?”

~~~

Kate, Clint and Nate were almost to the X-Men’s jet, which had turned off the cloaking feature upon notification of their pending arrival, when the confession came over the lines. She was trying her best to stay out of Tony and Derek’s conversation, but each syllable uttered by Derek made it harder. The admission that Derek knew what Howard and Maria Stark were planning stopped Kate in her tracks. Clint of course, also having heard the dialogue halted with her. They were overhearing a conversation that could alter her life even more so then the events of the past week, and Clint had no clue what to say to her. He was about to offer once they put Nate on the plane, they should go join Tony instead of the perimeter watch group, but Nate saw the jet and excitedly exclaimed, “I want big plane”. That was enough to pull both of them out of their own turmoil and continue towards the jet.

~~~

Shaking his head Derek clarified, “Don’t get me wrong, I loved Kate. She was my daughter, my little girl, but she was also my ticket to a higher status and better things in the corporate world. I just lost Eleanor, I couldn’t lose Kate also, and definitely couldn’t let her go to the Starks. I would be a laughing stock.”

“What did you do?!” Tony shouted as he moved towards Derek. Steve forgot all about Logan as he ran to hold back Tony from doing something that he would later regret, at least Steve hoped he would regret it if he killed Bishop. The entire movement between the two men reminded him of when Tony found out that the Winter Soldier had killed his parents.

“I actually didn’t do a lot.” Derek said tilting his head, “You know better than anyone that people talk in our line of work. I heard rumblings that Howard had duplicated his super serum. The guy was going to hand over what he had to the Pentagon, believing that private corporations shouldn’t have it.” Shaking his head at the madness of the notion, Derek stayed on his attack of the memory of Howard Stark, “Seriously what was he thinking? Driving around with that stuff in his trunk on back roads with his wife and without a security escort?”

Trading a calculating look with Tony, Steve resolved, “You killed them.”

Again, shaking his head Bishop informed, “No, I didn’t. Your friend Bucky killed them, let’s be clear on that fact.” Then included a small validation for the Winter Soldier, “But in his defense, he was brainwashed and didn’t know the full mission, only his part in it. I just made sure that the right people had the information.” Leaning back against the wall in reflection, “It worked out great for me, Kate was still mine and I was owed a big favor to be called in later.”

“Son of a bitch!” Tony yelled trying to break Roger’s hold on him, totally now understanding Clint’s actions of yesterday in the courtroom and mentally noting the need to apologize to the archer later.

“Get him out of here!” Steve ordered the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they pulled Derek roughly off the ground and placed handcuffs on him. The agents, seeing the pissed off Ironman, made haste and left. Once Derek and the others were taken out, Steve felt the release of tension even through the suit and let go of Tony. Stark didn’t say or do anything, didn’t even look back to Steve, just started to make his way through the doorway and looked around. He was silent as he was taking in the sight of the final battle, lost in his own thoughts.

Concerned that Tony was going to do something once they left the terrorist base, Steve requested a perimeter report, “Sam, how do we look outside?”

_“S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken everyone we caught into custody, we’re clear out here, ready for your order of egress.”_ Sam reported.

Nick, satisfied with a job well done informed the group, “ _We are going to do one more sweep through the compound. Your job is done here, get back on the jet and get the kids home.”_

~~~

Clint had just entered the jet and was met by Charlie, Cooper and Lila. Pepper, Professor Xavier and Kate stayed back to allow the family reunion, devoid of interference from outsiders. This moment was for Clint and his children.  Cooper and Lila without hesitation went to see their little brother and hug their father. Charlie kept her distance from the gesture. The Professor and Kate shared a knowing look, Charlie didn’t know where she fit into the equation just yet and was being cautious.

Sensing that there was someone missing, Clint looked up to see Charlie studying him. Untangling the arms that made up the death grip of embraces on him, he went to Charlie. Bending a knee, he was able to look straight into her eyes, “Charlie, it’s over. HYDRA is gone. They won’t hurt you again.” He prayed to anyone who was listening that he was telling the truth.

Looking to her mother she wanted confirmation of her father’s statement, “Really?”

Moving to the family, Kate kneeled next to Clint, and took Charlie’s hands, “Really baby. It’s over. We’re going home now.”

“We’re going home?” Lila asked. “What about mom?”

Handing Nate to Kate, then helping her up, he addressed Lila, “Honey I told you. Your mom did something wrong, and she’s gone.” He couldn’t bring himself yet to tell the girl that her stepmother had killed her mother in a standoff over her little brother. Damn, Clint predicted that this girl was going to be in therapy at least three times a week well into her seventies.

Lila was confused, and with good reason, “Yeah, but then mom came and got us. She took us on vacation.”

Knowing it wasn’t her place, but wanting to help Clint out, Kate plainly stated, “She won’t be coming to get you this time.”

“So where are we going?” Cooper questioned, trying to change the subject and take the focus off Laura. He had a feeling that something bad had happened to the lady he called ‘mom’ up until days ago and didn’t want to upset his sister right now.

The Professor decided to answer the eldest Barton’s question without consulting his parents, “We are going to go back to the school and get Lila, Nate and your mother checked out by Dr. McCoy.”

Clint didn’t even think about Kate’s medical condition throughout the entire mission, focusing on her, he voiced his newest concern, “Kate are you alright?”

Sending both the Professor and her husband a comforting smile she said as she rolled her shoulder, “I’m fine. Sore as hell, but fine.” Clint caught something in her eyes but couldn’t put his finger on it. He was about to follow up and challenge her answer but was distracted when the X-Men boarded.

Storm asked as she walked up onto the jet with Logan and Scott following, “You guys flying back with us?”

Clint wasn’t sure if the Avengers were going back to the school or the compound. He also didn’t want to let any of his family out of sight, and the X-Men’s plane was a lot bigger then the quinjet. That made going back with the X-Men the most logical option, “If you don’t mind.”

“Sure, the more the merrier,” Logan said with a hint of sarcasm that Clint spotted.

~~~

“Clint and Kate are going back to the school with the X-Men.” Sam reported from the pilot seat of the quinjet. “Are we following them or going straight to the compound?”

Steve spoke up for the group, “I don’t see a reason why. S.H.I.E.L.D. has the HYDRA agents. I think it would be best to get to S.H.I.E.L.D. for the interrogations.”

“They will take the prisoners to get checked out by medical first, that’s standard mission protocol. Once they are all cleared for questioning by the medical team, they will sit and sweat in the interrogation room for a long time before Fury even asks them for their name.” Natasha explained. “And the Director still has to contact the Council and U.N. before he even thinks about talking to Ross. I say we go back to the compound, get cleaned up, and wait for news.”

“Tony?” Steve asked. Tony hadn’t said anything since his last remarks to Derek Bishop, and it was slightly concerning to him.

Shaking himself out of whatever frame of mind Derek’s confession put him in Tony decided to break from it, he wouldn’t give Bishop that much power over him or consideration ever again. Upon hearing his name, Tony was able to figure out what he was being asked. He had already planned out what he was going to do after the mission, and enlighten the group of his plans, “Pepper, Clint, Kate and the kids will be at the school. I want to make sure that they are all alright and bring them back to the compound. I already have one car up there, so I will grab a second one at the compound and drive up to the school. Between the two cars, we should be able to get everyone back in one trip.”

Grateful that Tony was talking at last, Steve agreed, “No, you’re right. Let’s go to the school and regroup with everyone. See if Nick reports anything in. Then decide what and if anything, needs to be done.” Facing toward the cockpit, Steve requested, “Sam, please let them know we are following them back to the school.”


	31. Chapter Thirty ~ Broken Halos

Chapter Thirty

Broken Halos

When both jets had landed at the Xavier school, all occupants exited and made their way into the school silently. Doctor Hank McCoy, who had stayed behind to manage the school and students, was waiting on the tarmac and once he saw Kate he turned to return to the school. Kate comprehended the message. Hank was not happy with Kate’s appearance. She had Clint usher the kids inside the mansion with her to the medical unit. Scott directed everyone else to follow him while they were entering the school. “Let’s regroup in the Professor’s office.”

No one had heard anything from S.H.I.E.L.D yet about the information, if any, had been gathered by questioning the captured terrorist agents. Everyone was led to a room that looked to be an office or a library. Professor Xavier took his place behind a desk. Walking up to the desk Steve started with formalities, “Before we start talking about the mission, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their help today. It may take a while before we understand the full impact of our activities in Australia but thank you for your assistance with it.”

Logan walked away from the group and over to a table on the side of the room that housed several bottles of alcohol. Pouring a glass of the contents from a random bottle, he really didn’t care as long as it did its job, he finished the glass in one swig.  “Well, if anything else, the pup being there when we took HYDRA down may help her sleep better.”

“It would be a blessing to have her not worrying about them anymore. Scared that any unfamiliar sound was HYDRA coming to take her or hurt Kate, watching the shadows, and trusting no one.” Storm agreed.

 “I fear it will always be a part of her.” Professor Xavier commented. He didn’t know what would happen next, but it was safe to assume that Clint would take Charlotte and Katherine away now that there appeared not to be any harm or devious plans set to befall upon them.” He took comfort in the fact that wherever Agent Barton took his family, it wouldn’t be far. Charlie needed to remain a student at the school, and Kate was under the medical supervision of Hank. The one thing that he did know is that the hopes Logan and Storm were having were not possible, “That kind of trauma doesn’t go away, its imbedded in her. Charlotte received torture at a young age that the most efficient government trained personnel wouldn’t be able to handle. Katherine, well Katherine, let’s just say that she will forever be carrying her demons.”

Pepper grabbed Tony’s hand. They were in the back of the room, finding a safe corner to watch from. Tony looked down at the hand holding his own and squeezed back. He wasn’t irrational, he was fully aware the entire time taking down HYDRA wasn’t going to fix everything.  He had experienced himself the demons the Professor spoke of. His were from Afghanistan and he knew that no matter what he did, no matter how far he went, how much he worked on himself, those demons and nightmares will always be there.

 Kate signed up for the job, she always knew the potential consequences associated with being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, just as Clint did. Together, they would work their way past it. Thinking back to the courtroom scene when Clint went off. It wasn’t until he pulled out a knife that Kate got involved. Even when he was hitting the wall, she just leaned against it. Clint and Kate obviously knew how to handle each other and their moods. It was the kids that were the priority in Tony’s mind. How the hell would any of them overcome this week? What were the future implications of the recent events?

Tony looked up to see that Professor Xavier was looking at him. Reassuringly Xavier addressed the room, “We all carry demons. What’s important is how we pack them on our life’s journey. Do we carry them around in a suitcase or in our back pocket?

Standing up and releasing Pepper’s hand Tony walked out of the room calling back, “I need to go for a walk.” He then looked at Rhodes, “you can fill me in later, alright?”

~~~

“She threw Natasha?” Kate inquired to Clint, not taking her eyes off Hank as he drew some blood from her. He had already checked out the children and so far, they all were doing good. He also took some blood from Nate and Lila just to make sure they weren’t drugged again while in HYDRA custody. Kate had sent the three oldest kids to the cafeteria to get something to eat for lunch while Nate took a nap in Clint’s lap. Clint was laying back on the examining table with Nate laying on his chest soundly sleeping. They were now just waiting for all the tests results to come back. Clint used the time to fill Kate in on his life with the Avengers to avoid also falling asleep.

Muffling a yawn with his fist, Clint explained, “Not far, just enough to separate us. Wanda knew Nat and I weren’t really fighting each other. We were just sparring, trying to do something to kill time and look real until Steve got Bucky clear.”

With the necessary blood drawn, the needle was removed, and Kate bent her elbow up until Hank returned with a band aide and left to run the samples. “What did Nat do?”

Gazing up at the ceiling Clint summed up the airport fight, “She ran off to do something else, I really wasn’t paying attention. The whole thing was stupid anyway. Wanda called me out on it, said I was pulling my punches, I fired off Antman on one of my arrows into Tony’s suit. After that I fought the King of Wakanda. Then we all were arrested, the end.”

“The end?” She asked. There was no way that was the conclusion to the story.

“Well, fast forward through two years of house arrest and half ass home improvements. Tony shows up and blows my HYDRA wife’s cover which get my kids poisoned and my guards, who monitored my house arrest, shot and killed. I essentially get arrested again, accused of killing previous spoken of HYDRA wife and guards. S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up and gets me out of it. The kids and I come out to New York, and you are now caught up to speed.” Clint didn’t breathe once during that explanation which meant Kate needed additional time sorting out the events.

Leaning her head against the wall behind her, Kate turned to face Clint, “That was a really nice story Clint. Now tell me, how much of it is true.”

Putting his hand to his heart Clint assured, “All of it, even the lies, especially the lies.”

“Mom, mom, mom!” Charlie charged into the room screaming with Lila trailing behind her. Both adults quickly quieted the child to prevent Nate from waking up.

“Charlie, Charlie, Charlie!” Kate whispered back which caused Clint to laugh out loud, waking the sleeping toddler up. “How do you like it? Dear Lord child, what is it?”

Now that Nate was awake, Clint was able to sit up. If Lila and Charlie were together wanting something, both he and Kate needed to be active participants in whatever these two were plotting. Charlie put one hand on each side of Kate’s chair and jumped up and down, amazingly avoiding jumping on Kate’s feet, “Can Lila spend the night?”

“Ask your dad.” Kate informed passing the responsibility to Clint.

Seeing what Kate had just done, Clint called her out on it, “Oh, we’re starting that, now are we?” Then doing a quick head count he realized one child was missing. He needed to start getting use to counting four heads instead of three, “Wasn’t your brother watching you two?”

“You were serious about that?” Charlie tested, and what really bothered Clint was the puzzled face the girl made along with her question. Charlie understood that Clint was her father but was apparently having difficulties understanding that he was an authority figure now as well.

A trigger point for Clint was being challenged by his children when he gave them direct instructions. Especially when the directions were given in order to maintain safety.  Charlie had homed in on the button and was repeatedly pushing it. Clint knew she was testing him. With a voice so calm it was almost mocking Clint explained to his eldest daughter, “Yes Charlotte, I was.” Then he focused on Lila, this wasn’t a new rule for her. “Lila you know the rules. When I tell you to stay with Cooper you do it.”

Lila threw her newly discovered sister to the wolves, “He was talking to some boys and Charlie said we could go play at her house.”

“How about you guys go up to Charlie’s room here in the school.” Kate offered as a solution before Charlie tested Clint any further, “Get showered and changed. You have been in the same clothes for over a day.”

“Then what?” Lila asked her dad. She had gone through so much and was craving any resemblance of stability for the future. There was also the issue of her not understanding what exactly had happened to her mother, and why she wasn’t with them. Nobody was talking about Laura, and Lila was starting to put things together that something awful had happened but was too timid to ask her father in front of Charlie and Kate.

Clint decided that now was as good of a time as any to start including Kate in discussions with Lila. She needed to get use to Kate being a member of the family. She had just lost her mother and before the girl could even start to comprehend that concept, another woman was by her father’s side. Clint had to the best of his abilities explained Kate and their history together to Lila, but she was only ten. The only family she knew was Laura, himself and her brothers. Now her mother was dead, and she had a step mother and sister. The therapy bill for the kids was not going to be cheap. “Kate and I need to discuss that. You two go upstairs and get clean please.” Lila turned to look at Kate. She was so confused with what was happening. Before Lila could say anything, Charlie was pulling at her arm to leave.

“That girl is a handful isn’t she.” Clint observed once both girls were gone, and he allowed Nate down on the ground to walk around and fully wake up.

Knowing that Clint didn’t mean that as a criticism of the child, but an observation made for his own benefit. She pointed out the adjustment that their daughter was forced to make rather quickly, “She was raised as an only child in a house where she wanted for very little up until a day ago. Today she is the middle child, with housing yet to be determine, and she doesn’t know what she wants.”

“Yeah, it’s tough for all of them. Cooper and Lila start therapy tomorrow, Pepper set it all up. S.H.I.E.L.D. has contracts with doctors specializing in this particular type of trauma.” Clint informed, “However, I will say that they are handling it a lot better than the adults are.”

“It’s only been a short time. I’m sure the other shoe will drop soon enough.” Then she spoke from experience of living in a mutant community that educated children from less than picture-perfect upbringings for a decade, “Once they feel comfortable in their surrounding they will process the recent events, then there will be hell to pay. Let’s just enjoy the peace and quiet for however long we have it.”

That made sense to Clint, once the kids were in some sort of routine or familiar environment, everything would come out. The issue with that scenario was that the routine or familiar environment that Lila and Cooper had, was now all gone. As an entirely new family unit, Kate and he would have to lay down the foundation of a safe and loving home that would permit the children to feel safe enough to process the past week. There was no time like the present to start laying down that foundation, “So, like Lila said, ‘then what’?”

Getting up from her seat, Kate redirected Nate away from the hazardous waste’s brightly colored red bin to another location. “I don’t know. I guess we talk to the Professor and gauge the risks of Charlie going off campus. I have a house here, but like I said before, it’s only two bedrooms.”

“Tony has been upgrading my quarters at the compound.” He knew it wasn’t the ideal solution, but it was the best they had at their disposal until he could look for a more permanent answer. “They should be just about done by now. He said it would only be a week at most. Even if it is not all completed, there is more than enough room for everyone.”

“You sure?” Kate enquired skeptically as she looked to Nate. She didn’t think it was the best idea to pretty much shove her down Nate and Lila’s throat for acceptance.

Seeing that she was unsure of his suggestion, Clint walked over to her and held her by both of her elbows and looked her deep in the eyes, “I can honestly say that I have never been more certain of anything in my life. I want us all together under the same roof.”

Trusting Clint to take the lead on this one, Kate started to run through the list of things that needed to be done, “Okay, well I have a few things to see to. After I’m done, we still need to wait to get the kids’ results from Hank. Have him medically clear everyone for travel, even if it is only down the road. Then I will talk to Professor Xavier, then hopefully gather the children together long enough to get them all to the compound in time for dinner and bed.”

~~~

The children and Kate’s results took longer than normal to get back, due to an unexplainable server glitch in the infirmary wing. When everything was up and running once more, the results were completed in no time at all. Satisfied for the most part with the findings, Hank McCoy walked back to the Professors’ office with Kate and Clint following behind. Once Nate saw Pepper, he exclaimed “Peppy” and ran to her open arms. The office appeared to be where everyone had assembled to discuss the aftermath of the mission. Clint walked over to stand by Natasha, Steve and Sam. Kate perched herself on a side table that separated Scott from Logan.

“How is everyone.” Storm asked from her position next to the Professor.

Taking a seat to the side of Xavier’s desk, McCoy crossed one leg over the other and reported, “The children’s results came back fine, they were well looked after during their time in captivity.”

Turning his head slightly to the right so he could see her without too much body movement and effort, Logan followed up, “And you Kate?”

“I’m fine.” Kate informed in a relaxed way to him. Logan had been through this song and dance numerous times before and could easily decode the comment. “Fine’ from Kate, meant that she was better than bad, but worst then good. She was probably hurting along with a massive migraine. At least that is what it normally meant, something she could push through until she was able to sneak away to some secluded location and regroup. Stealing a glance towards Clint on the other side of the room, Logan got the impression the man had no idea that his wife was in pain and faking her way through it.

Hank had no issue with calling Kate out in front of everyone, sometimes it was the only way to get the woman to take care of herself, “Her readings came back a little elevated, but I believe that is due to the stress of the situation, it is understandable and nothing that wasn’t expected. I suspect even though she won’t admit to it, she is experiencing some of the physical side effects of so much stress and activity. I would like to give it forty-eight hours and retest. If the numbers remain high after that amount of time, then we may have to look at keeping her in the infirmary and adjusting the medication.”

“Forty-eight hours then.” Clint confirmed, staring at Kate across the room. He wanted to know more about these physical side effects and why Kate hadn’t said anything to him. It was also strange that Logan laughed when Hank revealed Kate’s results. There was an inside joke somewhere in it about his wife’s medical condition that he wasn’t in on and didn’t like it. Redirecting his focus before he started something, he asked Natasha, “Any word yet from Fury?

Natasha saw the looks exchanged across the room. The best option now was to quickly get everything wrapped up and the Avengers back to the compound. Natasha could read a room and had been doing it since she first stepped foot into the Xavier school, no one needed to tell her of the connection between the various members within the office. She did not appreciate Logan throwing in Clint’s face the relationship he had with his wife. She knew from experience that it was just a matter of time before Clint did something about it. Picking up Clint’s hint to get things moving she told him, “Nothing of great significance, just word from the higher ups at the UN and Council. We don’t know if any information has been extracted from the arrests.”

Steve continued, “The United Nations has halted any enforcement of the Accords until a full investigation is done and Ross sits in front of a committee hearing.”

Knowing that what Steve and Nat said was a very generalized synopsis of what Fury had reported, Clint broke it down, “So, are you guys still on the run?” He knew Steve, Sam and Nat could take care of themselves, but Wanda was here. If the UN was still after them, then she was in danger.  

“Nick said he would get back to us once that is made clear, but it’s safe for the time being to stay at the compound.” Natasha informed with a roll of the eyes from years of being told to ‘sit and wait’ from Director Fury.  Then she told him of the information he really wanted, “Wanda will remain here until all the red tape is cut through.”

Looking around the room, Kate saw Pepper sitting quietly in the corner. It was still a puzzle to Kate what exactly was Pepper’s role in all of this was. She understood the woman was engaged to Tony and had been a tremendous help watching the children during all the chaos, and Kate was beyond appreciative of it. But why was she back at the school and sitting in the debrief? “Where’s Tony?”

It took a few seconds for Pepper to catch on that Kate was speaking to her, “He went to go for a walk. I think it all got to be too much, and he needed fresh air.”

Sam tiredly reminded Clint, “Thought you said once this was over they would be yelling and hugging.”

Remembering that he predicted that ending between the Captain and Ironman, Clint observed to Steve, “You guys aren’t to the point of making up yet, are you?”

“No, I don’t think we are.” Steve admitted somberly. He didn’t come here looking to resolve his issues with Tony. His involvement was because of HYDRA’s part in the matter and in some way making it up to Clint after he was arrested for helping Steve. “Derek Bishop’s confession threw salt on the wound. Brought the whole thing back up again. Even if we could move on from the Accords disagreement, there will always be Howard and Maria’s murder.”

Clint had told Kate about what happened between Steve and Tony regarding Bucky and the killing of her grandparents. Perhaps it was years of working for S.H.I.E.L.D., she had become desensitized to murder and government conspiracies, but Kate didn’t understand the resentment Tony had for Steve. Yes, a lot of new information was just uncovered, but the end result was the same, the Starks were dead. It would have been different if Bucky was just an assassin who accepted the hit and carried it out, but Clint told her there was a lot more to Bucky’s history than just being a hitman. Speaking to Steve, Kate attempted to help, “It probably would help if you visualize the assassination of my grandparents like an onion. Their killing being the heart. There are numerous layers to peel before you reach the heart of the onion. Bucky’s involvement was only one layer of it.”

“But it was the last layer before the heart.” Steve said remorsefully staying with the onion metaphor.  

Kate grinned and spoke slowly, “Yes, but he was still just another layer. Not the whole onion.” Steve smiled at Kate’s attempt of comfort. She was a surprisingly calming entity, Steve understood why she lasted as long as she did in her field. Kate had the ability to see and understand the big picture and rationalize the meaning. She reminded him a lot of his old friend Howard, who was always steps ahead of everyone and saw how everything fit into the grand scheme of things. 

“All this talk of onions is making me hungry.” Sam piped in. They had rations on the flight, but it had been a while since any of them had a hot meal that filled them up.

Xavier spoke up, “I am having the kitchen make up something for us. The students are finishing up their lunches now, so the staff is available until the dinner rush. Shouldn’t be long.” It had been a long day, and no one had had eaten anything suitable enough to be called a meal in over a day. Always the proper host, ordering food to be prepared for the team and their guests was one of the first things the Professor did when he returned to the school.

“Thank you. Your generosity is extraordinary, and greatly appreciated.”  Steve said, which received a head nod from the Professor in return.

“That’s it. HYDRA is now gone?” Wanda asked. She had her own sorted past with the terrorist agency and wished to see them vanish.  

Steve answered Wanda. It was right for him to do, he had been fighting HYDRA for decades and would be able to speak from more experience than anyone in the room combined. “HYDRA is just that, a hydra. In order to defeat it, one must cut off all of the heads. The problem with this one, is that we don’t know how many heads it had before we started chopping away at it. We can hold our breath and hope we got them all, or do as we have been doing, keeping a watchful eye out in case it comes slithering around again.

“There will always be the threat of something or someone trying to get to Charlotte.” Xavier gloomily contributed, that was the truth of the situation. Charlie was worth more than the rarest gem or resource to the right person, and everyone was aware of it. Nevertheless, he pushed on to avoid interruption from anyone before he was able to say his whole peace. “However, I do not believe with recent developments that isolating her to the campus is the solution anymore.”

“Why?” Clint asked trying not to sound hopeful at the possibility that he just may be able to take his entire family off campus today.

“Up until a few days ago, Charlotte’s every need was met on these grounds.” Xavier told Clint, then spoke to everyone, mostly the X-Men. He knew the departure of Charlie would hit hard, “Today, she has more needs that I believe a loving home off campus can meet. Keeping her here will ensure, her physical safety, but there will be a toll on her emotional wellbeing. The only family she knew was within these walls, now she has an extended family and siblings.”

Scott piggybacked on the Professor’s remarks, “It will take HYDRA years if not decades to get back to the level they were operating at yesterday. I believe any threat against Charlie could be easily taken care of with the right security measures in place.” Looking to Clint, “I feel it is safe to assume that you have that area taken care of.”

“I can keep my family safe.” Clint defended to the X-Men who were all eyeing him with contempt. He didn’t need to be a telepath to comprehend why. They had all been raising Charlie since she was a few days old. Kate was like a sister to most of them, and here he was, a stranger showing up and taking them both away.   

“You can keep them safe?” Logan laughed contemptuously at that statement. He had been filled in on the whole story. The Sandbox mission that no one in their right mind should have sent a pregnant woman on, no matter how highly trained or essential she was. Now the same man who was supposed to keep them safe ten years ago was standing in front of him making the same promise. “I’m sorry, but I call bullshit on that. You weren’t there to see what happened when you said you could keep them safe and didn’t. You didn’t walk into that room and see what they did to that baby.” Clint had to force himself not to turn away, it was information he did and didn’t want at the same time. “You are all standing around here talking about what you think will or will not happen. You weren’t there to see what did happen. You didn’t see the tubes and machines that were connected to Charlie, your baby daughter!” Logan screamed to stress his point to the archer, “You didn’t have to push Kate’s guts back into her stomach because the person, till this day I don’t think he was a real doctor, botched the C-section and cut into her numerous times before ripping Charlie out of her.” There was a heavy emphasis on the word ‘ripping’ that caused Clint to cringe. That was it, Clint thought, he may be sick, but his suddenly green face didn’t stop the Wolverine from continuing, “You didn’t search for a pulse on her knowing that there was no way in hell she was alive, but still tried to find one.”

“Logan, enough!” Scott yelled. A refresher course in that mission wasn’t needed, it was engraved in all of the X-Men’s mind, and the Avengers, especially Clint didn’t need to have that visual plaguing his thoughts. Scott was the one who carried Kate out of that hellhole because Logan refused to hand over Charlie to anyone. Looking back on it, it was a mistake for Logan to be the one to go into the room to assess Kate. It would be years later that they would find out that Charlie remembered everything and could tell the whole story of her mother’s condition at that moment. Scott sent Kate an apologetic look, she looked to be almost ashamed of what Logan had educated the group to. Yes, like Xavier said, her demons were still with her.

 Logan looked at Clint and knew his point was made. With a final disgusted glance thrown at the man, he walked away to refill his glass. Logan had decided that the only way he was going to get through the next day was to drink until he regretted it in the morning.

Relieved that his stomach contents were going to stay where they were after the vivid picture Logan had painted of his tortured child and wife, Clint acknowledged what Logan, and the entire X-Men team had done for his family, “I can never thank you enough for what you did for Charlie and Kate. I owe you a debt.”

“Screw your God-damn debt, just keep them alive.” Logan said, never looking back from the bar.

Pepper had enough of the back and forth between Logan and Clint. It was a pissing match that would only result with everyone getting wet. Clint was just trying to end things on a good note and reunite with his family, her family. The man had been to hell and back and was finally seeing the light and Logan was attempting to deter him from it.  As a method to take the attention off Logan and Clint, Pepper swore, “I promise you that the loophole that Laura used to get into the compound was a one-time deal, and Tony is already working on upgrading the system.”

 “You will remain at the compound?” Dr. McCoy asked Barton. He wasn’t interfering, just wanted to know where his patient would be in case of an emergency.

Thankful that the notion of him taking Charlie and Kate off campus didn’t start another argument, Clint replied, “For the time being, until we find our own place. Kate would like to continue teaching, and Wanda and Charlie need to go to school. The best solution I can think of is to find somewhere smack dap in the middle between the school and compound.”

“Speaking of Miss. Maximoff,” Professor Xavier said then looked at the woman in question, “Your temporary visa does not allow you to return to the compound, so the best option available is to place you in Katherine’s cottage until things are sorted. That will all change once we officially have your student and work visa. I hope with time, you will feel comfortable to move into the school with us but understand completely if you prefer your privacy and space.”

“Thank you so much Professor Xavier.” Wanda said. It felt good to have a safe place to go for people like herself.

It had been too long since Clint had seen Wanda happy and it was the instant mood lifter that he needed at the moment. With her placement and the family’s approval to leave, Clint took his leave from the meeting, “I need to go check on the kids. Make sure the girls aren’t flooding the dorms.” Looking towards where Natasha and Steve were standing, “Cooper is hanging out with some of the students. If he turns up, please tell him I am upstairs. He knows where Kate’s room is. Pepper feel like hanging out with us?”

“I would love to.” She said standing up and moving Nate to her hip, grateful for the excuse to leave the office.

Kate’s head was about to explode. She debated if she could mentally or physically handle pretending to be ‘happy mom’ to children whose lives were just destroyed right now.  It was taking everything she had just to get through the meeting. She needed to get out of the school and soon, even if just for a little bit, then she would be a hundred percent and back in the game. “I think I am going to go find Tony.”

~~~

It didn’t take long for Kate to find where Tony had gone off to. She followed the path that led away from the school and found him sitting on a bench that overlooked the lake on the school’s property. It was a favorite spot of hers as well. Rarely was anyone this far away from the school so it was a good place to reflect quietly.  She tried to let her presence be known before she approached him by stepping loudly, when that didn’t work she asked as she stepped in front of the bench, “Mind some company?”

Moving to the side of the bench to make room, Tony patted the spot next to him, “Not at all. I was just trying to clear my head after everything. How are the kids?”

“Everyone is good. Lila and Nate are fine, Hank says they were taken care of. Clint and Pepper brought them up along with Charlie to our quarters to get them washed and changed before we leave. Cooper is hanging out downstairs with everyone.” She informed as she sat down.

Tony was relieved with the phrase ‘before we leave’, Kate was coming home. Looking behind them, the mansion couldn’t be seen from their location. It was half the reason he picked this place to sit down, no one could spy on him from the school. It seemed to him to be an odd place for a mother to be after everything that her children had gone through, “Not that I don’t want your company but why are you out here?”

_Seen my share of broken halos  
Folded wings that used to fly_

 “Guess I wanted to do the same thing, clear my head a bit before I go back into ‘mom mode’. This is the first time I have had the opportunity to think about what had happened.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was enough of an explanation for right now.

“Killing Laura?” He hesitated to ask.

_They've all gone wherever they go  
Broken halos that used to shine_

Kate bent forward, resting her elbows on her knees and folding her hands. She looked down and spoke to her hands, “That doesn’t bother me, I’ve killed before. When the kids find out, it may be different. There is no point to hide it from them when they are older, everything tends to come out in the end anyway.” Tony knew there was a deeper meaning to what she said but allowed her to keep her secrets. Lifting her head, Kate stared out over the lake as she sat up and leaned against the back of the bench, “Honestly between you and me, what does bother me is Clint’s reaction to it, but I understand it, I really do.” Kate made eye contact with Tony with her last three words, he didn’t know who she was trying to convince that her last statement was true. “I was referring to the aftermath of the wipe and coming to terms with what my life is now compared to then. Calling it an adjustment seems too simple of a term for it all.”

Knowing that it was his turn to say something, he was at a loss for words, “Hmm, really don’t know how to respond to that. Any of that.”

_Angels come down from the heavens  
Just to help us on our way_

Waving it off Kate said, “No worries, it didn’t need a response, maybe I just wanted to say it out loud.” She didn’t mean to say everything that she did, it wasn’t the point of coming out here. “So, I’ve been talking with Clint.”

“As long as that was all you were doing with him.” Tony warned as he played with a lose thread on his cuff.

Lifting her elbow to the top of the bench’s back, she rested her cheek in it and looked at Tony with a smile, “You’re going to have to get over that one fast. Have two kids, guess how.”

Meeting her gaze Tony put on a deadpan expression, “Rather not.”

_Come to teach us, then they leave us  
And they find some other soul to save_

 “Anyways, he has been filling me in on everything. The abridged version of course, but how the Avengers came to be, the fall and resurrection of S.H.I.E.L.D. The fight over the Accords, stuff like that.” Her hand moved from her face to the back of her head where she had her hair tied back in a ponytail. Watching her play with her hair, Tony realized he did something similar when he was uncomfortable. He would rub the back of his neck right below the hairline, the area where her ponytail started.

_Seen my share of broken halos  
Folded wings that used to fly_

 “Find out anything interesting?” Tony probed knowing that they were closing in on her real purpose of meeting him out here.

“I did. I asked Clint why he wasn’t with S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore and he explained the battle of New York and his role in how the situation got to that point.”

Shaking his head Tony let a tiny laugh out, “Is he still going on about that? He knows just like we all do that it wasn’t him, it was all Loki and the Tesseract. Clint had no control over what he was doing.”

_They've all gone wherever they go  
Broken halos that used to shine_

Crossing her arms Tony got the feeling that she had probably just said something like that to Clint prior to coming outside, “Yeah but he still has blood on his hands from it. Blood of fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and civilians.” Then staring off in the distance she added from experience, “That doesn’t wash off.”

“I guess it doesn’t.” Tony admitted. He never thought about how Clint handled the events that led to the formation of the Avengers. It appeared he still carried the guilt of his role. “No one blames him, especially me.”

Both of Kate’s eyebrows rose and there was a spark in her eyes, “But you blame Bucky?”

“I see what you did there.” Tony admitted as a bird took off from a nearby tree. He watched it soar until it was out of sight.

_Broken halos that used to shine_

Kate put both of her hands out with the palms up, as if she was holding a miniature Clint and Bucky in each hand. “Both of them were controlled by another and carried out horrific deeds under that control,” she then dropped her right hand onto her thigh as if the ‘Bucky’ hand suddenly became heavier, and looked over to Tony, “but only Bucky deserves punishment. Clint gets, and pardon the pun but a ‘get out of jail free card’.” The left hand moved up higher. “You even just told me excuses for what Clint did and how he is not responsible for it.”

With his right arm, Tony pushed Kate’s hands down to rid himself of the visual display, “It’s different, Bucky killed my parents.”

_Don't go looking for the reasons  
Don't go asking Jesus why_

“Yes, he did.” She admitted, there was no use in quarreling over the semantics of that fact. “But he was merely the vessel that physically did it, it wasn’t a personal objective for him, just a command. If it wasn’t him, they would have sent someone else. I’m sorry, I know I am still playing catch up, but I fail to see the difference between the two mind-controlled scenarios.”

“Are you calling me a hypocrite?” Tony accused finding it difficult to keep the harshness out of his voice.

Kate defended herself, “Not calling you anything, just trying my best to get a lay of the land.”

_We're not meant to know the answers  
They belong to the by and by_

Kate was still an outsider, and as she said, was trying to figure out everything and probably would be for a long time to come. No one had ever presented him with an outsider’s point of view on the ‘Bucky Stuff’ as Clint called it earlier. He hated to admit it, but Kate did have a damn good point with her questions. Why were the two mind control situations different to him? How could he forgive Clint for everything he did to S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Avengers? His assistance in recruiting goons for Loki and allowing the god of mischief to unleash total chaos on New York with numerous casualties, but not forgive Bucky for killing his parents. Before Kate asked him, Tony would have said it was because once Clint ‘came to’ after Natasha hit him, Clint jumped into the fight and helped them save the city, and the world from the alien invasion. On that same note, Bucky helped defeat Baron Zemo to some degree. It was hypocritical. “So, I am left with two options, the first, forgive Bucky and Steve and the second would be to become retroactively pissed at Barton for the whole Loki world domination thing.”

Loving the fact that Tony reduced everything down to two choices, she confirmed, “Seems to be.”

_They belong to the by and by_

“And now Clint is married to my daughter, father to my grandchildren, and a pretty damn good friend." Tony wasn’t really saying it to Kate, but just out loud to himself. There were dire ramifications associated with option two.

In a patronizing tone, Kate agreed, “Granted, option two would make Thanksgiving a bit awkward.”

_Seen my share of broken halos  
Folded wings that used to fly_

“Which leaves me with option one.”

“It does appear to be the best solution for everyone.” Kate streamlined for him.  Tony didn’t need to ask who ‘everyone’ was. It was their reunited family, blood and chosen members. There could not be another civil war. There was so much more at risk now.

“And I’m invited to Thanksgiving?” He smirked as he rested his arm over the bench’s back ledge behind Kate’s back.

_They've all gone wherever they go_

“Got to get a house with a kitchen to cook it in first.” She added sounding annoyed by the topic. 

He was having a conversation with his daughter; the entire thing was surreal to him. He didn’t want to push, just wanted to enjoy the moment. However, he had to admit he was curious about the relationship, and it gave his mind a break from the conundrum that Kate had brought to his attention, “I’m sure Clint told you, but I remodeled his quarters at the compound. You would be surprised the type of expedited construction the right dollar amount can buy. It’s all done and ready for you guys. That is until you get a house I guess, you and Clint talking about that?”

Kate was fully aware that Tony was delicately trying to pry into her marriage, so she gave him a bit of information if for no other reason than to keep him talking and perhaps see ‘the light’ of what she was attempting to get through to him about.  “We did. He has specifications for the house, so I’m leaving it to him.” Returning the focus of the conversation back to her main objective, “I just need to know how many people to expect.”

_Broken halos that used to shine_

Catching Kate’s meaning, Tony asked, “Option one?”

“Option one.” Kate confirmed with a nod of her head.

_Broken halos that used to shine_

After a long pause, Tony breathed a heavy sigh and Kate knew what he had decided. “Want to sit here with me a bit longer while I swallow my pride?” He asked as he looked over the lake.

_Broken halos that used to shine_

Kate also looked at the scene in front of her, the tree painted in the colors of a New England autumn. The lake that when a leaf fell upon its surface it caused tiny ripples to stretch outward towards to shore. A gentle breeze in the air, her family safe within the school, and her father by her side. “I would like that.”

_Broken halos that used to shine_

Broken Halos by Chris Stapleton

 

 


	32. Chapter Thirty-One ~ Unpeggable

 

Chapter Thirty-One

Unpeggable

Seeing her walking into the hallway, exiting the Professor’s office, Logan called out to get her attention, “Kate.”

Changing directions so that she was able to walk up to him, she returned the greeting, “Logan, how are you doing?”

Meeting Kate at the half way point, they both sat down on the two-person couch that was against the wall. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

Smiling, she ran her hand through her hair and leaned her head back, “You know me, I’m going along to get along.”

With a stern face that matched his voice, Logan demanded, “Don’t let them push you.”

“Who is ‘them’?” She asked pretending that she didn’t know who he was referring to.

Recalling the recent events and the consequences of said events Logan relented, “Take your pick. Any of them who walked in and just took everything over.”

“Clint and Tony?” Kate offered seeing that Logan for some reason had decided against speaking their names.

“Yeah, them.” There was a noticeable trace of bitterness in his voice, but then it was replaced by concern, “So, what is the plan?”

Shaking her head, Kate confessed, “Really don’t have one beyond today. Just trying to make it through. I’ve asked for some time off. I need to focus on my family for the time being, then life will go back to something resembling normal.”

“What does ‘normal’ look like to you with a husband and additional children?” He asked without looking at her. They both knew this conversation had to happen sooner or later, but neither of them was the ‘let’s talk about our feelings’ type of people.

“I don’t know.” Taking a deep breath, “It won’t be like it was.” Turning to stare at Logan to ensure that the meaning of her next words was crystal clear without the need to go into specifics, “It can’t be like it was. I’m sorry.”

“I know.” He admitted breaking off the eye contact to look away then return his gaze with a fast smirk, “But hell, it was fun while it lasted.”

Nodding her head and releasing her own knowing smile, Kate agreed, “It was a lot of fun.”

Continuing with his inquiries, “And Charlie?”

“Going to take her out of school for a few days.” Kate knew anymore time then that away from Charlie’s routine would only end in disorder. Fully aware that Logan would take issue with the removal of the child from the academic setting for the same reason, she justified her decision, “Give her the opportunity to bond with the kids and Clint.”

“But she will stay here?”

“As a student, yes.” Kate assured him, “Right now, we will be at the Avengers’ compound. Wanda is prohibited from residing there and she can’t be enrolled as a student until the official stamp is on her visa, so she will be taking over the cottage until Clint and I can arrange something else.”

With obvious alarm on his face, Logan questioned, “Isn’t that premature, moving off campus? We don’t know officially the results of the mission and the status of the threats against Charlie.”

“The Professor is confident that Charlie is safe at the moment.” She knew Logan trusted the Professor with Charlie’s safety and wouldn’t question a call the man made about such a serious situation, “It will take a while, if ever for HYDRA to have the resources to attempt anything similar to an abduction.”

There was a silence between them for a few moments while Logan carefully raised his next question, “You would tell me if this wasn’t what you wanted, right? You don’t have to go with them if you don’t want to.”

Kate was unprepared for that remark. Nobody had bothered to ask her what she wanted. Clint had asked in a way, but always with the undertone of the assumption that they would be together. She did want to be with Clint and their kids. However, it wasn’t just their offspring now, there was also his two other children to think about. Suddenly she felt exhausted. Kate became aware that she was in danger of losing what little control she still retained. In a moment of complete honesty and directness, Kate spoke the hidden truth.  “I want the life I was supposed to have. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen.”

Logan was not a person who was known to wallow in the past. As a man without one, the notion was lost on him. However, for some reason he was overcome with curiosity of what Kate had expected from her life prior to the Sandbox mission, “What was supposed to happen?”

“In a nutshell?” Kate asked and nostalgically looked back on when she was ten years younger, expecting her second child with her husband and the life they together had mapped out, “Clint should be at least a level eight agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. We would be raising our family in an apartment building in Brooklyn that we had just finished remodeling. I would be running systems, probably a level seven agent. I wouldn’t be dealing with gamma radiation poisoning. Charlie would be Lucy, and daddy’s little girl. It wouldn’t be the perfect life, but we would have been happy and together.”

“Lucy.” Logan pronounced, trying the name on for size. “Nope, it doesn’t work, that girl is a ‘Charlie’ through and through”.

“Yeah, she is.” Kate agreed.

Dropping his head to stare at the floor, Logan confessed, “I hope it works out for you and the pup, I really do.”

Kate believed him. Logan had always only wanted the best for Charlie and herself and tried his best whenever it was in his power to ensure it. Placing her hand on top of his, Kate patted it twice. She then leaned in to gently kiss him on the cheek. It was ‘goodbye’ and they both knew it. Not goodbye in the professional way, they would still see each other often at the school. Also, Kate hoped that Logan would continue to be a heavy presence in Charlie’s life. No, this goodbye was to what they had. The relationship they never forced or held the other to. The union that was comforting in sacred times and necessary when times were troubled. It was all gone now, it had to be in order for either of them to move on.

~~~

Clint followed Pepper up to the room with Nate and Cooper, who had caught up with them in the hallway outside the Professor’s office. Pepper had the diaper bag over her shoulder that Clint had prepared for Nate before they left for Australia. Once they walked into the room they discover Charlie and Lila each laying on their stomachs facing the end of Kate’s bed watching a movie on tablets that Clint didn’t recognize. It wasn’t a StarkPad, it must have been some X-Men technology, since at first glance to Clint, it appeared to be of a higher quality then anything available on the market. Clint would have demanded they share, and not each have their own if he was present, but he was willing to go with it today.  

Lila looked up briefly from the screen when the four people entered the room, and Clint was able to see how tired she looked. There were dark bags under her eyes that screamed for rest. He would have to hurry up and get the kids home in time for dinner and bed. Charlie on the other hand looked fine. The wellbeing of his daughters wasn’t the only thing that caught his attention, they were wearing the same outfit, which struck him as odd. They were both dressed in black leggings, and a purple long sleeve t-shirt, decorated in silver metallic hearts. While it was possible for Charlie to have multiple pairs of black pants, the odds of her possessing more than one of the shirts was questionable. Putting together the pieces of the puzzle, Clint presented his conclusion, “Charlotte, did you make Lila a tablet along with matching outfits?”

Pushing past his father, Cooper ran over to Charlie, “Hey, can I have one please?” The boy requested as he jumped onto the bed as well and leaned against the stack of a million throw pillows that were collected on the bed and threw a leg onto the back of each sister for elevation. As soon as he was comfortable, Charlie reached behind her, handing her brother his own tablet. The entire scenario played out in front of Clint too fast for him to intervene. While on one hand, Clint was beyond excited that three of the siblings seem to be getting along as if they had been raised together their entire life, the other hand was slightly perturbed by the actions. How could any rules be established and followed if Charlie had free reign over her abilities?

“Does baby Nate want one?” Charlie intruded through his thoughts as she was looking at the youngest Barton. Nathaniel was probably the only sibling that Charlie hadn’t really spent time with. On the ride back to the school Nate was passed around from adult to adult without any interest from Charlie. A quick analysis of the elder sibling’s behavior towards the younger concluded that it was either due to the fact that Charlie had never been around a child as young as Nate or she was picking up on Kate’s hesitation towards the toddler. While Clint wanted to encourage Charlie’s sudden interest and giving nature to Nate, simultaneously he wanted to squash what he suspected was a people pleasing tendency she had, thinking that people would like her if she gave them things. Kate was like that when Clint first met her, hell, Tony was still like that.

Lila got up to show Clint what she had brought up on her tablet. “Look dad, doesn’t this puppy look just like Lucky?”

Looking down at the screen Clint saw a picture of a lab puppy. “Yes, he does Lila.” Clint confirmed and dismissed the topic in favor of returning to the previous one, “Charlie, Nate doesn’t need a tablet right now. In fact, we need to establish some ground rules with this whole thing.”

“Dad, where is Lucky? Was he hurt?” Lila asked as she pulled down the hem of Clint’s shirt trying to recapture her father’s attention.

Shit, Clint had forgotten once again all about the damn dog. Was it still at the compound? What happened to Lucky after the gas attack? Pepper must have seen Clint struggling because she came to the rescue. “Lucky is fine Lila.” Pepper assured, and Clint breathed a sigh of relief as she continued. “Ms. Hill made sure that Lucky was taken to the vet and checked out. He had been at a training kennel since then. He will have a lot of new tricks to show you when he comes home.”

The answer looked to satisfy the child and she moved to show the image of the dog to her brother. “Look baby Nate, we are going to see Lucky soon.”

“My puppy!” The toddler exclaimed and hit the screen with his hand. Lila sat down on the floor and allowed Nate to climb in her lap. Charlie watched the whole interaction with interest and appeared to be taken mental notes. It was almost as if she was looking to Lila as a model of how to be an older sister.

Clint wondered to himself why all of a sudden Nathanial was ‘baby Nate’, but decided that it wasn’t a priority right now. With a loud throat clearing to get Charlie to look at him, Clint tackled the rules for his mutant child, “Charlie, does your mom have any rules about when and where you can make things?”

Still watching her sister and little brother, Charlie coolly replied, “Not really, as long as I don’t hurt anyone or cause problems, she says ‘it’s not worth the fight’.” Clint thought that Kate’s rule was a pretty good starting point, there was still some expansion required, and limits needing to be set. Then Charlie looked to her father and unknowingly made Clint aware of who had taken charge of the rules and limit setting in her life, “But Logan does. I am to ask him or the Professor if it’s a big thing. Anything else, Logan says,” the child changed into her impression of the Wolverine with a low and gravelly voice, ‘Use your God damn common-sense pup’.”

“Dad, Charlie said a bad word.” Lila tattled without ever looking up from the screen.

“I know Lila, I heard it too.” Clint said with an eye roll in Pepper’s direction which was rewarded with a small smile from the strawberry blonde woman. He was suddenly hit with memories of Lila tattling on his language use to Laura and being told to set a good example for the kids along with putting money in the ‘swear jar’. Laura may be gone, but her memory would live on within him and the children. Clint still had trouble believing she was dead and couldn’t shake the feeling of grief and mourning. How many more times was he going to be sucker punched by nostalgia? He attempted to control it by telling himself that she didn’t deserve a moment of his consideration but knew it wouldn’t help. Laura was a major part of the last decade of his life, a lie or not, she was a part of it, and it would take time to let her go.

 Pushing all feeling about the HYDRA agent deep down, he continued on with his parenting, “Charlie, I can guarantee that your mother doesn’t allow you to say that type of language. So how about you give your old man some credit and don’t even try?” He scolded the child while knowing that she had probably heard and said worse within the school walls.  If Clint was honest, he would admit that he was thankful for the brief break before he needed to respond to Charlie’s remarks. Her recent comment made it crystal clear who was the authority and father figure to the girl. Clint may be Charlie’s father, but Logan was her dad.  He had been the one setting up the rules for her behavior up until now. Kate probably just went along with what he established due to her illness, allowing Logan to be the disciplinarian. That realization was yet another dagger to his heart, another man stepped up to do what he should have done. Pushing aside his insecurities and regrets, Clint carried on with the task at hand, “That is a good rule that Logan has, and I agree with it. However, I want you to ask me before you use your powers. Your ‘common sense’ or not. Is that clear?”

“What if…” Charlie started but Clint stopped it.

“There are no ‘what if’s’. That’s the rule.” He proclaimed, wondering why it was so hard for the X-Men to control the child. He had only been her active father for three days and had her pegged. Charlie liked a challenge, something she came by honestly from her father, Clint had to admit to himself with silent pride. All someone had to do in order to avoid the argument was cut the child off before she started. It was simple. Then Charlie proved that she was unpeggable, and the daughter of Clint Barton. 

“No, wait, hear me out.” Charlie protested and continued, “What if I am in the bathroom and there isn’t any toilet paper. Can I make some?”

Cooper sat up and placed his tablet on the bed, “On that note, if I am in the bathroom and there is no toilet paper can I shout for Charlie to make some?”

Closing his eyes in frustration to calm himself Clint replied, “Cooper don’t encourage this please.”

“Sorry dad, but I think she has a valid point there.” Looking at Cooper who was now standing next to the bed, Clint noticed that he seemed to be genuinely concerned about the dilemma Charlie had presented.

“Charlie, how about you just check before you use the bathroom to make sure you have enough?” He suggested.

“What if it’s an emergency?” Charlie asked.

He had to stand his ground, giving into this would just open the door to ‘what ifs’ and so much more, “Then yell for someone to bring you some.”

Trying one more possibility Charlie theorized, “What if there isn’t anyone to bring me any, or no one hears me?”

Losing control of his temper, Clint’s voice rose in the way that caused both Cooper and Lila to take notice. They knew once their dad reached that point, the discussion was over. “Charlie just please stop. I can assure you there will always be toilet paper. I promise, alright?” This girl just would not take ‘no’ as an answer. She was going to be the death of him.

 Everything stopped in the room when Pepper’s cellphone rang, pulling out her phone she made her way to the door, upon leaving she was barely able to avoid the collision with Kate. “I’m so sorry.” Pepper managed to get out as she was pressing the call accept button on the phone screen.

“No problem.” Kate laughed as she watched Pepper rush to the hallway, shutting the door behind her, she asked, “How are we doing in here?”

Surveying the room, Clint observed, “All and all, I think we are good.”

Seeming to have recovered from Clint’s first outburst at her, Charlie informed her mother, “Clint laid down ground rules for me.”

“And Charlie said a curse word.” Lila told Kate as she stood up to approach the woman. Nate was not far behind his sister, but neither child got anywhere remotely close to touching distance of Kate. Clint saw that Lila was seeing what Kate’s reaction to cursing would be. She was curious to witness how Kate would handle her own child’s unruly behavior, clearly ready to compare it to her mother’s action in a similar situation.

“Well Charlie, that sounds like your father, you know, setting up rules to be followed without any input from anyone else.” The comment was supposed to be directed at Charlie, but somewhere in the middle, Kate’s eyes caught Clint’s and her point was made. Continuing with her response to Lila, Kate said, “and the cursing sounds a lot like your sister, she is just seeing what your dad is going to do about it.” Turning to face Charlie again who was on the bed still, her mother reprimanded, “Charlie, don’t curse, you know better.” Finally, she concluded her comments by returning to Clint, “Clint, what ground rules?”

Clint’s answer was disrupted by Pepper returning to the room, “It was Tony, he said to bring Charlie to the cottage to pack up her things for tonight.” Then she added with a questionable tone, “and he said that we have Thanksgiving plans so don’t make other arrangements.”

“Interesting.” Clint observed dryly.

Kate had the advantage of knowing the context of Tony’s comment and simply answered to the adults in the room, “I’ll tell you later.”

“Peppy,” Lila asked, using Nate’s name for Tony’s fiancé, “can we go too?”

Charlie had a confused look on her face, “Wait, where am I going?”

Clint was the one to respond, wanting to be the person to tell his daughter that she was finally leaving the campus, and not for a mission, but for a place in a family where she belonged. “You are coming back with us to the compound.”

“I’m leaving the school again?” Once was a dream come true for Charlie, even if it was only to stay on a jet with the Professor and Cooper, but twice had to be a trick. She looked to her mother for an explanation, “Mom?”

Kate kept her answer short and sweet, “Yeah, you are going to go back with your father.”

“Then come back?” Charlie followed up.

“Yes, for school, but not to live honey.” Kate emphasized so the room for misunderstanding was minimized, “We are going to be living somewhere else.”

Now it was Lila’s turn to be confused by the conversation, “Together? What about my mom?” Everything was getting too weird, why wasn’t anyone talking about her mother?

Charlie opened her mouth to say something, but Kate cut her off, “Clint some help please?” Kate asked and quickly grabbed Charlie, putting her hand over the child’s mouth and told her to ‘hush’, knowing that whatever her daughter was about to say to Lila was not going to be in anyway good.

“Lila, I told you Laura,” saying her name, and not ‘your mom’ made is slightly easier for Clint to get through this, not a lot, but slightly, “She’s gone. She is never coming back.”

“Why? Is she dead?” Lila didn’t want to ask, but she had to know. It was all too much for her to keep inside anymore. She was old enough to read between the lines. The small remarks here and there over the last few hours. She knew what her father did for a living. The concept of death wasn’t an unknown to her. There were only a few reasons that would account for her mother’s absence, and death was currently at the top of that list. To support Lila’s theory was Charlie’s comment to her earlier on the jet about her mother’s death probably being quick.

Clint looked directly at Kate, who’s shocked face must have been mirroring his own. Even Cooper was looking to him for an answer. Laura may not have been his real mother, but she was an important person in his life, and despite what had recently happened, her death would still hurt him. Clint willed every fiber in his being to put off this conversation like he intended to until they were back at the compound, but knew deep down, a simple ‘we’ll talk later’ would only put off the inevitable. Plus, Cooper had a right to know as well. Clint moved to sit on the bed and brought Lila with him. Picking her up, he moved her to the side of him and pulled her close into a one arm hug over her shoulders. With one final look to Kate, he confirmed Lila’s guess, “Yes Lila, she’s dead.”

Pepper felt the need to get out of the room and allow the private moment, whispering to not draw attention to herself from Lila or Clint, she asked Kate, “Should I take Charlie, Cooper and Nate to Tony?”

“What’s he going to do with them?” Kate whispered back to which Pepper threw her hands up in a ‘who knows’ gesture.

Conceding that it was probably the best option right now, Kate pushed Charlie towards Pepper and jerked her head towards the door at Cooper. Cooper immediately put a defiant facial expression on that Kate countered with a hardened one on her own face. Cooper was older, and still had a mother. Any conversation regarding Laura with him could and would take place later. This time was for Lila. Receiving the message, Cooper reluctantly left the room after Pepper and Charlie. Once they left Kate scooped up Nate who was trying to follow the group out. She sat on the bed on the opposite side of Lila with Nate sitting in her lap. She was trying for everyone’s sake to bond with the youngest child. Looking at the girl who was the same age as her own daughter, Kate saw that Lila had a trail of tears running down her face but was soundless. Clint had his face buried in her dirty blond locks.  It was clear to Kate that neither Clint nor Lila saw the group leave or that Kate and Nate had sat down on the bed with them.

“We were supposed to go on vacation.” The child cried out.

Clint looked up, “Is that what she told you?”

Nodding, “Yes, I was asleep when she came and picked us up at the Avenger’s house.” Clint understood that Lila didn’t understand that she was gassed unconscious and taken from the compound. She probably woke up on the plane and Laura explained the whole thing away by simply saying they were taking a family trip. The girl continued, “Mom said Cooper would come later.”

He hated the concept of questioning his child about what her mother had told her during her kidnapping, but it seemed to be the only way to sort his way through Lila’s confusion and being able to explain everything to her. “What did she say about me?”

“She said you were hurt. I told her we were on a ‘daddy trip’, and she said that it was over, because you got hurt. Now we were taking a ‘mommy trip’.” Lila started to cry again, hiccupping between sobs, “I…want…my…mom!”

Kate couldn’t stop the tears from forming in her eyes, the whole thing was heartbreaking. Maybe she should take Nate and leave. She should just excuse herself and let Clint handle this, but she looked over to him and saw the pleading in his eyes, knowing what she was thinking and willing her to stay. Nate was too wrapped up in whatever was playing on the tablet to take note of the distress his sister was in, a small mercy Kate thought. Nothing could have prepared her for the child’s next comment, “Why?? Did she die because she did that bad thing and couldn’t come back?”

Kate had never seen Clint so lost in the entire time she knew him. She could tell that he had absolutely no idea of how to respond to his daughter’s question, probably because he was still trying to wrap his head around the same question Lila posed, ‘why’. He would never say it to Kate out of fear of hurting her, but she knew he grieved for his dead ‘wife’. It would just be a secret she would let him keep, if for no other reason than to keep the peace between them. Now, Lila was the concern. Kate’s mother wasn’t an evil HYDRA agent when she passed, at least not to Kate’s knowledge, and frankly, after everything that had come out this week, she wouldn’t discount anything. That aside, Kate had been in Lila’s exact situation when she was younger, losing a mother, and not understanding why. Not really knowing if it was her place or not, Kate explained to her new stepdaughter what she had wished someone said to her back then, “Sometimes people leave us, they die, and we don’t know why. We don’t know why they had to go and leave. It doesn’t matter what they did, good things or bad things, we loved them, and all we know is that they are gone, and can’t come back to us anymore. We miss them so much it hurts and makes us cry.”

Clint saw what Kate had done, without coming right out and saying it, she had given both him and Lila permission to morn Laura, the mother and wife.  He couldn’t love her anymore if he tried. She had a subtle way of getting to the point without making it obvious. After a few quiet minutes, Lila queried, “Did the Avengers do it?”.

“No Lila, the Avengers didn’t kill your mom.” Kate stated looking over Lila to Clint who had raised his head to meet her eyes in terror of the dangerous road his daughter’s question was leading them down. Kate decided to take a different route and took over the conversation, “You know my mom died when I was ten years old.”

Lila looked up at Kate, curious to the revelation and asked as she tried to control her tears by inhaling deeply through her nose, “She did? How?”

Clint was about to stop Lila’s question, not wanting to force Kate to relive that part of her life no matter what the reason may be, but Kate answered as she reached for a tissue from the nightstand and handed it to Lila, “Cancer. She got really sick and died.”

Breaking away from Clint’s embrace Lila continued with her questions, “Were you sad?”

Kate looked down at Nate in her lap who was still holding Lila’s tablet, “Of course, I was very sad. I know you are too.” Then she spoke to Lila directly, making eye contact, “You know, it’s alright to be sad.”

“Was my mom sick?” Lila asked desperately wanting to have some explanation for her mother’s demise. 

Clint closed his eyes; how much should he say? What would Lila be able to understand? She knew that Laura had done some bad things, but how to explain that those bad things led to her mother being killed? Kate had tried to detour the ‘why’ question with a vague ‘we never know why’ speech, but it was looking like that explanation wasn’t going to cut it after all. He would need to speak with a professional before giving Lila too many details, best right now was to generalize. “In a sense.”

_‘Your mom drank the HYDRA Kool-aide and did horrible things which resulted in me shooting an arrow into her heart, killing her instantly._ ’ Knowing that she couldn’t say that to the child, Kate summarized her thoughts appropriately for a ten-year-old, “Your mom was sick in her head, so yes, that’s why she died.”

Lila seemed to accept that answer. Even if it wasn’t entirely the truth, it was something to help her process Laura’s death, and that was what she needed right now, a reason. However, she needed more to fully comprehend, both the current situation and the woman who had seemed to take over her mother’s place, “Where was your mom sick?”

Kate was used to being asked a million questions by Charlie, it didn’t faze her. She understood Lila was trying to find a common thread with Kate, something that would make her relatable to the young girl. The shared heartbreak over a mother passing away while they were the same early age wasn’t exactly what Kate had been going for, but it was what they had. Now she was left with how to explain ovarian cancer to a little girl? “She was sick in her stomach.”

“Did you have a step-mom?” Clint understood, and here they were, the real reason behind Lila’s questions with Eleanor’s death. It wasn’t to find a common link with Kate, it was a gateway to ask what and who Kate now was to her. They would have to be very careful with this line of questioning, it could possibly lead to resentment from Lila towards Kate if his daughter interpreted Kate’s placement in the family contingent on the death of Laura. The last thing anyone needed right now was for Lila to put Laura’s death at Kate’s feet, despite the fact that Kate did in fact kill her. 

Kate was way ahead of Clint, as usual.  She knew that eventually Lila would ask about Kate’s role and try to fit it into the equation of how and why her mother died. The girl understood well enough, Kate was Cooper and Charlie’s mom, and Clint had already told her that they were married. While Lila hadn’t yet asked about how if Kate and Clint were married and had been for years, what did that mean about the marriage between her own parents, she understood enough to know that if the woman married to her father isn’t her mother, then it is her step-mother. The girl wasn’t stupid, there would be no way in hell she would forever buy the story about the timing of Kate coming into her life and Laura leaving it as just a coincidence. Knowing the dangers of the deep water, Kate floated on the surface, “I do actually, her name is Heather.”

“Is she nice?” Lila shyly questioned as she watched her little brother tap on various things on the screen.

_‘Shit, shit, shit’,_ Kate thought. How to explain to Lila that her own step-mother was the same age as herself and a former classmate from boarding school. How does one explain ‘gold digger’? Looking to Clint, who knew all about Heather, Kate once again stretched the limits of the concept of ‘truth’. “Very nice. We were very good friends when I was in school.”

Clint couldn’t help but smile at Kate’s interpretation of her father’s third marriage. He remembered when he first was getting to know Kate and they were comparing their upbringing to each other. Clint by far had it worse, being orphaned young and running away to join the circus, but Kate had to watch her father marry her best friend a few months after they both turned eighteen.  While Heather may not be the best avenue to take Lila down for what the standard is for a good step-mother, Pepper may be. “You know how Laura wasn’t Cooper’s real mom, and Kate is?” Lila nodded, and Clint continued, “Well, Kate’s dad, Derek, wasn’t her real dad, Tony is. Which means Heather isn’t really Kate’s step-mom, Pepper will be when she marries Tony.” Lila’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion, so did Kate’s as she mentally went through step by step everything Clint just said and tried to make sense of it. Clint supposed that maybe they needed to make a chart for the purpose of explaining their family line.

“Pepper is your step-mom?” There was a brightness that seemed to suddenly appear on the child’s face as she applied the role to Pepper.

“She will be.” Kate confirmed then started with her own questions, “You like Pepper, don’t you? She’s nice, right?”

“She is really nice.” Then Lila got quiet and looked down which cause a mutual concern to both Kate and Clint. The tears started in full force again, “I miss my mom.”

While Clint and Lila only knew of a loving Laura, Kate had only known the HYDRA agent who hurt her family for years. As a result of those actions, she was now sitting on her bed in a mutant school explaining death to the adopted daughter that the agent had with her husband while holding their biological son in her lap. If Laura wasn’t considered evil for her work at HYDRA, she would be for the hurt she was causing her family now. It was pure evil what suffering that woman’s life and death was inflicting upon people that up until her dying breath proclaimed to have loved and cared for. Kate decided that in order to move on with her life and family, she would have to bury the resentment she held to Laura. At least when the children were around. “That’s ok. She was your mom, and she loved you, and you loved her. That doesn’t go away just because she isn’t here anymore.”

Sharing the burden of losing her mother, Lila pointed to her brother. “Nate wants mom too.”

Clint once again wrapped his arm around Lila and pulled her into a hug, “I know he does, and he will cry for her too.” It hadn’t happened yet, but Clint knew it was coming. If the tears his daughter shed over the death of her mother didn’t do him in, Nate’s would. Seeing that perhaps by giving Lila some ‘big sister’ responsibility, she would be able to handle this a little bit better, “But he will have his big sister to help him if he gets sad. And you know I will always be here if you miss her and want to talk.”

Lila looked to Clint, “I know.”

“Are you alright?” Clint asked, releasing his hold on the child, knowing it was a stupid question to ask after what had happened. “Anything else you want to say or do?”

Lila slid off the bed and stood facing Clint, proving the old notion that children bounce back from anything and everything. “I want to go play with Charlie again. Can I go to the cottage?” Clint wasn’t a fool, he knew this wasn’t the end of it, Lila was just using the excuse of going to play as a method to get away from Kate and him for a little while, so she could process what had happened and been said.

“Yeah, sure.” Kate answered for Clint, thankful that Lila was ending the conversation and ready to move on for the time being. Kate felt herself fading and didn’t want any of the children around if something were to happen. “I’ll text Tony to send Cooper for you.” Kate said as she was reaching for her cellphone that she had gotten back from Charlie on the jet. Typing her message to Stark she directed Lila on where to go, “Just go on downstairs and make a left. Follow the hallway all the way down and out the door. There is a stone path that will lead you out of the courtyard through a gate. Please make sure to shut the gate and then just follow the dirt road. Your brother should catch up with you by then.”

“Thank you.” Lila said as she ran out the door without another word to anyone.

“Well, that was…intense.” Kate declared, exhaling and standing up. She turned around to speak directly to Clint, “I don’t know about you, but I am emotionally exhausted from all these heart-to-heart conversations. I think I could sleep for a week, if only to turn off my brain. I swear it’s going into overdrive.” It was another half-truth, but it seemed that Clint was going along with it. If she could just rest for a bit, everything would be fine. It had to be. She laid Nate down on the bed with the tablet to amuse himself for a bit while she started to collect items she needed for the compound.

Clint watched his youngest on the bed. Keeping his eyes on the child, he asked, “Quick question, please don’t ask me why, but has there ever been a toilet paper shortage here?”

“What?” Kate asked wrapping her phone charger around her hand in preparation of packing it. “Do you need some and there isn’t any in there?”

“Not me. You know, just forget I even said anything.” He said waving the topic off with his hand.

“That is going to be difficult.” Kate answer jokingly but resumed her work.

Changing the conversation, Clint started to interrogate Kate’s whereabouts for the last hour, “Where have you been?”

Kate was going to protest the tone of voice that Clint was using with his question, then realized that she did leave him alone with four children for a good amount of time. Even though he did have Pepper, it was a shitty thing to do right after a completed mission with four tired kids. “Well, I said I was going to talk to Tony. I did that by the lake, came back in. I went to ask the Professor for some leave, I have two weeks approved by the way, as long as I provide lesson plans.  I ran into Logan and we talked for a bit. Then I came up here and was informed of a toilet paper crisis.”

Sighing Clint explained, “There isn’t a toilet paper crisis.”

Going through the dresser she nonchalantly responded, “Always a wonderful thing to hear.”

“What did you talk to Logan about?” Clint said trying not to sound jealous of the Wolverine’s long relationship with Kate. Then it hit him, Logan actually had a relationship with his wife that was longer then Clint’s own.

“Stuff,” Kate answered knowing that the answer wouldn’t suffice Clint, so she added, “He is concerned about Charlie and me. Wanted to make sure we were alright, and what our plans are.”

“That’s it, he was concerned about you?” Clint stood up and pretended to help Kate pack by picking up her bag and following her around with it.

She could not handle a fit from Clint right now, looking at him, Kate let her annoyance show in her words, “That’s it. Sorry I didn’t take notes. Didn’t know you would be up my ass about it. I’ll do better next time.”

Clint was half joking, half serious with his rebuttal, “You know Charlie gets her attitude and smart-ass mouth from you.”

Matching Clint’s tone, Kate pointed out, “Really, well I’ll have you know that for the past ten years I have been a damn decent human being. It wasn’t until after the wipe reversal I remembered that I was in fact, a bitch.”

“Then it was Logan,” There wasn’t any hint of sarcasm or amusement in that comment. It was a straight up accusation. 

“I should defend that, but really can’t keep a straight face and do it.” Kate said in a lighthearted manner, hoping that the situation would diffuse since she was refusing to entertain Clint’s jealousy. “He spends a lot of time with her and is not really known for censoring himself around children.” She met his stare and added, “It’s part of his charm. What is this all about? Is it the toilet paper?”

Throwing the bag onto the dresser, Clint yelled, “Forget about the damn toilet paper!”

Turning around so she could lean against the top of the dresser, Kate kept going with the jokes. She had just told Clint she was mentally done and needed to recharge and here he was having a tantrum that would probably rival Nate’s. Add to that, Kate was starting to really feel the effects of her condition along with going on a mission for the first time in ten years. “I can’t now. I have been holding it for a while and I am concerned that there won’t be any paper when I get there.” Clint sat down on the chair that was next to the bed. She knew he was at his limit as well. Any filters he had put up to get through the mission were gone now.  The conversation with Lila just put the finishing touch on what Clint was able to compartmentalize and handle.  “Tell me what this is really about?”

“Nothing, it’s stupid.” He said shaking his head then rested it in his hands, “Just my own insecurities that’s all.”

So, this conversation was going to happen despite her best intentions. Looking up to the ceiling, she said the name of Clint’s newest demon, “Logan.”

Lifting his head from his hands, Clint stared at the wall and confirmed, “I see his influence on my daughter. He was the father figure to my child.”

“Yes, he was.” Kate stressed ‘was’. There was no point in beating around the bush about it. No matter how much her admission hurt him. “I’m sorry, but at the end of the day, isn’t it a good thing that she had a father figure at all?”

Standing back up, he didn’t know what safety settings were on the tablet Nate was using so he went over to the bed to make sure it was still age appropriate content on the screen. Looking over the toddler’s shoulders, Clint confessed, “I guess. I am just coming to the realization that I am fighting for a place in her heart that is already occupied by another.”

“I can understand that feeling.” Kate answered, still leaning against the dresser. The room wasn’t big enough for them both to be wondering around.

“No, you can’t.” Clint snapped reestablishing eye contact with his wife, “I know you are talking about Laura. But she’s gone.” Once again being hit by the meaning behind the words he had just spoken about the woman he had loved for the past decade. He choked back down the emotion that he begrudgingly felt about Laura’s death, and repeated, “She’s gone. Cooper understands what Laura did, and what happened. You don’t have any competition for him. He’s yours, heart and soul, yours.” His tone unstiffened with the last comment. “Nate will only know you, Laura will just be a woman in a picture I show him when he is older.” The damn was threatening to break on his self-control, Laura would just be a lady in a picture to her son. “Lila, I don’t know. We will see what therapy does for her, but you will be the maternal presence in her life.” Clint’s tone became harsh once more, “But Charlie, she will see Logan every day. He will still be the father figure, the one she goes to.”

Kate was sympathetic to Clint’s plight and tried to show it in her soft tone. “You can’t undo ten years in one day Clint. You are going to have to give it some time. There isn’t a quick fix to this.”

Not given up, Clint retorted, “There isn’t a fix when she still has him to go to!”

“What do you want me to do?” Kate asked, matching his volume which caused Nate to look up, and Clint to take notice of just how close Kate was to losing it.  “Tell Logan not to be around her and Charlie not to go to him? Or perhaps you would prefer I just take her out of the school? Tell me Clint, what do you want?”

“She needs to be here.” Clint answered back as if Kate’s suggestion was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.

“As does he. It isn’t fair to separate them. You can’t do it.” She stressed, “You don’t get to do that. How about instead of whatever it is you are feeling toward Logan, I don’t know, jealousy, anger, hatred, whatever it is, why don’t you do a three sixty and be thankful?” Slamming her hands down on the dresser then lifted them to push back her hair as Nate started to cry, she exclaimed, “God damn it Clint, he saved us! HYDRA would have killed Charlie and me if the X-Men hadn’t shown up when they did. And this is how you act in response? What the hell?”

Without even processing, Clint yelled back over his crying son, “Because once again Logan did something I should have done!”

With eyebrows raised and a small smile on her lips, Kate calmly stated, “And there it is.”

Upset by the smirk on her face in answer to his eruption, Clint demanded, “‘There’ what is?”

“We may be physically standing at the Xavier school here in New York,” Kate said walking over and once again picking up the upset Nate. She patted the little boy on the back to calm him down and at the same time sent a cold stare in Clint’s direction, “but mentally, you are still at the Sandbox in Africa.”

“Maybe I am, can you blame me? I feel like I passed out after that explosion and just now woke up. So, excuse me if I am having some difficulties internalizing the events that destroyed our lives as quickly as you have!”

That comment was the end for Kate. She immediately noticed it had happened. The familiar feeling of the drug protocol stopping. It had happened twice before, but not like this. She and Hank had lofty expectations for the new meds, before neither of them knew about the wipe or factored in the stress included on an active mission. Kate knew since the jet that she was going downhill, but pushed it off, knowing like every time before that rest was the best thing. Her options and time were running out. Sadly, the only thing left to do was the ‘nuclear option’, the final resort – get her family out and away before anything was obvious.

“Are you even hearing yourself right now?” Kate asked in total bewilderment.  If Clint wanted to go, they were going to go, it was all going to come out. She wasn’t proud of what she was about to do, but it was the only way.  “The events that you think I so quickly got over I have known about for ten years. Not the details of course, but let’s put this in some type of perspective. You came to after the wipe in the safe halls of S.H.I.E.L.D. with Natasha by your side and only a few cuts and broken bones in question. You went ‘home’ to a wife and child. You didn’t even know there was an explosion. You knew a wipe had happened and just wrote it off as ‘S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff’ that you left to the higher ups to worry about and deal with. You went on with your life, playing the family man, secret agent and sometimes Avenger. In contrast, I woke up in a lab being cut open and having my child torn out of me! No clue how I got there or if I would survive it.  Imagine waking up pregnant, in labor, if not recalling the pregnancy was bad enough, also not remembering seven years of your life. Now I finally can fill in the blanks to questions I have had for a decade. I don’t just have to, as you say ‘internalize’ it, but I also must handle the revelation that I have two step children. One that is beyond hurt and confused and doesn’t know what the hell to do with those feelings. Who is old enough to understand her mother is dead. A mother I killed.” Kate emphasized loudly her last point and showed that she had lost the last of her composure as her voice started to break,  “and another child that I am trying in vain to convince myself that I am taking on the responsibility of raising from a good place and not out of revenge against his mother because she raised mine!”

Nate was now crying and reaching for Clint, Kate had matching tears falling from her face. Clint’s expression hardened as the truth of Kate’s words hit hard, as if she had physically struck him. As Clint was reaching out to take Nate, Kate continued. It seemed that once she started, she was finding it difficult to stop, another effect of the medication failing. “You have no idea what I have been going through and how long it took me to accept it, and don’t you dare insult me now by trying. Now you stand here and dare to act offended because your daughter goes to another man when you have only been around for three days? Get over yourself Barton! You can’t be at odds with Logan and try to form a relationship with Charlie. If you really want to prove yourself to her, you get rid of any ego you have, you go up to Logan, look him in the eye, say ‘thank you’, and shake his hand. While you are at it, don’t stop there, you need to go to Professor Xavier, Dr. McCoy, and Scott. Because they all stepped up without being asked to do the job that you didn’t even know was yours! It took a village to raise Charlotte up to this point, and you should be damn grateful that they were there to do it!”

Clint and Kate ended their staring match when the door was kicked open. Turning, they saw Logan standing there. Kate quickly realized that she must have been louder then she thought. “Kate are you ok?” Logan asked walking into the room and shooting Clint a look that whispered death. The loud sound of running could also be heard. In a matter of seconds, Natasha, Sam and Steve were also in the doorway.

Embarrassed by the volume she reached along with the truths she spoke, not to mention that there were witnesses to their private drama. Kate wiped her face with the back of her hand. “I’m going to go to the cottage and help move us out and Wanda in.” Kate made her way to the door, Logan stopped her which caused Clint to once again fill with anger. Kate nodded her head to communicate to Logan that she was fine, “I have to go help, even if I stay here, I did promise Wanda the cottage until her paperwork came through.” Looking back to Clint, “Clint, get your friends and get the hell out.”

That was another hit to Clint. Kate was now reconsidering moving. What a fool he was for thinking that the reversal of the wipe was like a magic wand. Everything would be fine with just a wave. No, there was no magic wand to this mess. “Katie.” He called out to her in a last-ditch attempt to stop her from leaving.

“Clint, let her go.” Natasha responded remorsefully to his call, then made her way out of the doorway to allow Kate to leave without any resistance.


	33. Chapter Thirty-Two ~ Reality

 

Chapter Thirty-Two

Reality

“I trust you are comfortable Mr. Secretary.” Director Fury offered as he entered the interrogation room. Thaddeus Ross was handcuffed to the center of the metal table. Discarded to his right were three empty paper coffee cups. Prior to sitting down in the chair opposite from the hopefully soon to be former Secretary of State, Nick added a fourth cup that was full, with the coffee’s steam still bellowing off from the top.

Looking over to the offered beverage, Thaddeus’ stomach protested him even contemplating the fourth serving of coffee. Meeting the waiting gaze of the Director’s, he questioned, “And if I wasn’t, would you attempt to rectify it?”

Taking a sip from his own cup, Nick watched the man’s face over the rim. Taking his time to savor the bitter taste before placing it back onto the table. Crossing his arms, he shifted down in his chair to project a more ‘relax’ position. “Nope, just curious, that’s all.”

“I would like to speak to the Council.”

A rare smile appeared on the Director’s face, “Don’t worry. They want to speak to you as well. So does the United Nations Security Committee, not to mention the Westchester Police Department. The latter can wait of course. Any charges they want to pursue against you would be nothing compared to what the Council wants to put on you.” Uncrossing his arms and resting them on the table in front of him, Nick moved closer, “Which is impressive considering that the local police want to charge you with two counts of attempted murder and at least twenty counts of child endangerment.”

Meeting the Director’s casual attitude, Ross folded his shackled hands, “You can be impressed all you want.” Then he pushed back his shoulders and explained, “I am the Secretary of State, the Committee Leader of the Sokovia Accords of the United Nations, and member of the World Security Council. I’m untouchable. The Council can’t take another hit, not after what became of the last Council.”

Nick Fury had to craft his statement carefully. There was some truth in Ross’ words. There was the possibility that the Council will cover this up to avoid another incident like when HYDRA was found within the halls of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Council. Keeping that in mind, Nick held back anything that could come back on him and his people. “You are all the things you say you are. No one can contest that. Who knows, maybe all those fancy titles can keep you out of the Raft or worse. However, in my experience the people with all the big fancy long ass titles are the least important, and I believe you sir, are no exception.”

Clearly insulted by the Director’s remarks, Thaddeus demanded, “What do you mean by that?”

Knowing that he had the man right where he wanted him, Nick complied with the request for an explanation. “I mean, you were nothing more than a minion to HYDRA. All your military training, political power, and friends, and you were a goon. Honestly, I would bet good money that Laura, even as a deep cover field agent with limited contact for ten years, had more information than you. They used you Tad.” Looking at Ross dead in the eyes, the former Colonel Nickolas J Fury asked, “Why? What was worth betraying your country? Everything you worked for your entire life?”

Ross looked behind Nick to the two-way mirror on the wall. He was positive that there were members of both the Council and United Nations standing on the other side. “I had my reasons.” Returning his eyes to the Director, “You don’t need to worry about it.”

“Reasons? For joining up with a terrorist organization and doing their dirty work? Tell me Mr. Secretary and I am using that title very loosely, what possible reasons could there be to forfeit everything you have? You know what, I don’t need to know your reasons,” looking behind him to the mirror, he confirmed Ross’ suspicion, “but they will want to know, all of it. As for me, I would like to know, just for my agency’s peace of mind, was it HYDRA, Bishop, or you, who ordered the hit on the Bartons?”

Deciding to attempt a go at the fourth cup of coffee, Ross reached for it, “Does it really matter who officially ordered it? Everyone agreed it needed to happen.”

Knowing what the Secretary meant, Fury pushed for him to be more specific for the official record, “Who was everyone?”

“You know who they are, it doesn’t matter what names you specifically call them, Bishop, the Council, it’s all HYDRA. HYDRA wanted them dead.”

“Why did it need to happen that night?” Nick asked. “HYDRA must have had numerous chances over the years to take Kate out. She lived on campus, but came and went, even I knew that, and I haven’t been watching her for a decade. HYDRA had Laura in Clint’s bed, at any point they could have been dead. What was so important about that night?

“I don’t know.” Seeing Fury’s quizzical expression change to a skeptical one Ross clarified, “Really, I don’t know. If I had to guess, I would say HYDRA was allowing the little freak to stay on the campus to be trained to her maximum ability. What would HYDRA know about teaching the girl how to be a mutant? She was of no real use to them until she could fight. Her blood is important, I think I heard that somewhere, but a few drops of mutant blood isn’t worth going up against the X-Men. There wasn’t a need to go to war. Just had to wait them out until there was a legal way on campus. Let the kid be, and when her mom kicked it, Bishop would take custody.” Leaning back, he continued, “Let’s be honest, Kate was always on borrowed time. The mutants gave her ten years she shouldn’t have had. The best research still doesn’t put Kate seeing that girl of hers turning eighteen. Even this,” Thunderbolt Ross explained as he pulled his hands up as high as the restraints would allow, “is just a minor setback.”  Then he saw it on the Director’s face, an expression that he couldn’t label and that could only mean one thing. “Oh, you didn’t know that did you, Kate’s prognosis?”

“I’m not the person cuffed to the table and being interrogated.” Nick observed in a tone that was devoid of any emotion in it. If he really didn’t know about Kate’s fate, he didn’t let it show. “Will you tell Betty?”

Now Ross had the face mask of confusion, in a low growled he asked, “Tell Betty what?”

“When Kate dies, are you going to notify Betty?” This was a gamble, and Nick was risking a lot with his bet. “They were friends in school, weren’t they? I thought I read that somewhere. Didn’t Betty receive a scholarship to Saint Guinevere’s Girl’s Academy in Manhattan? What a lucky girl, winning an opportunity to grow up with all the daughters of the world’s leaders and major players. I guess you could say it set her on her path in life. Having friends from that kind of environment really does help later down the line doesn’t it?”

Watching the Director looking for a reaction from him, Ross allowed himself to reflect upon a simpler time in his life. “Yes, Betty and Kate were close when they were young. That was of course up until Kate went away to Europe.”

Nodding at the information that wasn’t anywhere close to new, Nick probed, “And how close were the parents?”

Laughing at the question, Thaddeus felt himself relax slightly, “The Bishops? There were the occasional run-ins at school functions. Mainly my wife and Kate’s nanny handled the playdates. I worked a lot and wasn’t home as much as I should have been.”

“Sounds like some regret about that sir, but don’t we all regret something in our past?” Nick counseled, then pushed on with the line of questioning, “but you did know Derek?”

Ross didn’t like where this was going but didn’t see yet what Fury was trying to get at, “He was my middle-aged daughter’s elementary school friend’s father. That hardly counts as concrete evidence to prove association and collusion.”

Shrugging his shoulders in indifference Nick pointed out, “I don’t need to prove it. Both of you were found in a HYDRA base running away from the good guys and being protected by the bad guys.”

“Like I said, I’m untouchable.” Ross repeated.

Standing up and walking to a corner of the room, Director Fury propped against it, “Yeah, heard you the first time. I may not be able to get anything to stick to you Ross, and that’s fine, there are too many people who want you dead for you to be walking free for long. I’m just wondering how much Bishop will talk when I pull his sorry ass in here next. The guy doesn’t have anything to fall back on like you do with the United Nations and the Council. All he has is money, and here at S.H.I.E.L.D. money doesn’t talk nearly as loud as it does at the State department or United Nations. Really the only trade he can offer is information.”

Disinterested in the subject Ross stated, “Bishop doesn’t have anything on me.”

“See, I am having so much trouble believing that.” Director Fury said as he pushed off the wall and slowly started to walk the perimeter of the room. Once he was in front of the mirror, he tapped it twice and continued walking around. “Let me tell you what happened.” He didn’t say ‘what I think happened’, no, Fury had this man dead to rights and was just seeing how far Ross would go to save his own ass. “You were a General in the Army. You got Doctor Banner’s research and serum and used it on your own officer. The Army wasn’t happy with your ‘behavior’ so you were put into ‘time out’ behind a desk for a few weeks. HYDRA is sitting back watching this all play out. They saw Harlem, they know what the serum can do. They start working to find a middle man to get to you. A little digging and they have Bishop. A man already on their payroll.  You two meet up and talk about the good old days and bond over the disappointing life choices your daughters had made and the men they chose which you both despised.”

“Do you have a point anywhere in your little story?” Ross asked turning to address Fury, who was now behind him.

Starting to walk again the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director answered, “Oh I have more than a point. Actually, I have more than a story too.” The room’s door opened to reveal Assistant Director Maria Hill holding a tablet. She entered the room and handed it to Director Fury and walked out. Once the door’s closing echoed through the interrogation room, Nick continued, “I have proof. You handed over the research and serum to Bishop because he promised you a bright and successful political future. Bishop then sends the stuff along with his own clean funds to Africa to start up production and experimentations. I’m running short on time, so we are going to fast forward a bit here. S.H.I.E.L.D. tracks the money and we send a team in to shut everything down. Agent Bishop’s recon on the database puts a target on not only dear old dad and the Council, but you as well. You were a General in the United States of America Army, the very least that would happen to you would be a court-martial.” Nick held up the tablet to show a screen scrolling through lines of codes. “It’s all here. Agent Bishop did her job and got us enough proof to get Derek Bishop and you.”

Once again Nick sat down and placed the tablet down so that Ross could see. It was ancient Greek to both of them, but Nick had been assured by his Systems leader that the codes led to files and documentation that would provide the means to achieve the ends Fury had wanted for ten years.  “I have no idea what these codes mean, but I know it means something. This,” Pointing to the tablet he continued, “was worth the life of a woman and her unborn child to Bishop and HYDRA. That was how much they valued life, even when it was Bishop’s own daughter and granddaughter. Did you honestly believe they would protect your dirty secrets? And they never even told you that it was all in their records, did they? They never thought to inform you that S.H.I.E.L.D. maybe onto you. “

Thaddeus knew the goal of this was to make him turn on HYDRA and tell Fury everything. Ross had to concede to one of Nick’s points, he was stupid for thinking that HYDRA would honor their deal without any preservation of evidence for extortion at a later time. That was what pulled him back into the terrorist organization, the fear that if the wipe was undone, the Sandbox mission objectives would be remembered and acted on. That was what Bishop told him would happen at least. Thaddeus was sick to his stomach when Derek told him the extremes he and HYDRA went through to ensure Kate was not successful on her mission. All Ross could do was think about the little girl who played with his own daughter afterschool in the back yard. After all that remorse, Kate didn’t even recognize him in the hallway the night he shot her. Hanging his head in shame of his actions Ross spoke for the first time, the truth, “I just wanted to serve my country.”

Getting up from the table, Director Fury walked toward the room to leave. As he was lifting his hand to open the door, he stopped and looked over his shoulder. Sometimes it really was a case of ‘the devil you know’, and fought against his every instinct, but ultimately decided to throw a life preserver to the Secretary. “Listen sir, no one here is going to believe a word that Bishop has to say. His grave is dug. You on the other hand, have some clout. The Council will listen to you and the evidence you give. If you play your cards right, you can make it all look like a long con. You put yourself into the belly of the beast to get information on the take down. Make yourself out to be the hero, even if it’s not true.”

“What does it matter, you yourself said I’m a deadman as soon as I step onto the sidewalk.” Ross said with his head still low.

Opening the door Nick gave one last piece of advice, “Then die being a man that Betty and your country can be proud of.”

~~~

“You shouldn’t have let her go.” Clint commented to Natasha.

Nat walked into the room, passing Logan on her way. Putting a hand on Clint’s shoulder, she applied gentle pressure to cue him to sit down on the bed. “Here, give me Nate.” Clint obeyed and handed his youngest over to his namesake. “It was best to let her go Clint, we could hear you guys going at it from downstairs.”

“Yeah man, I expected you and Kate to get loud in the bedroom today, but not like this.” Sam added walking into the room while shaking his head in a disapproving manner as he was attempting a small joke.

“Sam, not the time alright?” Steve said following him in. Clint even in his mind set was able to see what his friends were doing. They were placing themselves between Clint and Logan, and as extra care, Nat had taken Nathanial just in case Logan did get through them. “Clint, what happened?”

Placing his hands on his knees and extending his back, Clint took a deep breath in trying to undo some of the knots that were forming along his shoulder blades. His efforts were rewarded with two soft ‘pops’. “I don’t know. It started fine, then the next thing I knew we were shouting at each other.”

“What about?” Logan asked surprising everyone that he was the one to ask the obvious question. 

“You for starters.” Clint answered honestly. “I don’t like what I see between you, my wife and my daughter. And it just snowballed from there.” Looking to Natasha Clint continued, “I went on with my life adding to my family, totally unaware that there even was an explosion, while Kate lived an unimaginable hell. She seems to have a small amount of resentment about that.”

“Can you blame her?” Logan offered and not in an angry way, but a genuine observation of the scenario. “She just told me downstairs that this isn’t what was supposed to happen. This wasn’t the life you two planned. At least you were given a part of it, you still had your family, messed up and infiltrated by the enemy as it was, you still had it. You had S.H.I.E.L.D. You had your friends.” Logan added by pointing to Natasha.  “Kate was alone and in enemy territory, dying, and though never admitting it, was scared shitless with a kid she didn’t remember making.”

“I know okay, I know I got the better part of the deal. “

“I don’t think you did.” Logan countered. “We did, the X-Men, and the school. We got Kate. The students here got her brilliant mind and learned that not all humans are out to get them. We got Charlie, the little brat that can make you laugh just as fast as she can make you want to kill her.” Logan pulled out a cigar and lit it, taking a slow draw and watched as the smoke crept to the ceiling, “You can dislike my relationship with your wife and daughter all day until the cows come home, but it was what it was.” Seeing Clint’s reaction to his observation, Logan clarified, “Kate pulled the plug on anything we had during our talk, even though I knew it was over the day I saw you with her at the party.”

Hating and at the same time admiring the Wolverine’s honesty, Clint asked, “Kate told me that you guys talked about your concerns for her and Charlie.”

Shrugging his shoulders at the innocent conversation he had with Kate being thrown way out of proportion, Logan said, “We did. I don’t like the fact that they are so quickly leaving the school, but Kate’s a big girl. She knows what she is doing.”

“Well I don’t think she is leaving, so you got your wish.” Clint said in a repentant manner.

Taking his cigar out and gesturing with it Logan pointed out, “Listen here bub, I am a dick, but I’m not that big of a dick. That is your wife and your child. I’m not messing with that.” Putting the cigar back in, “no matter how great the sex was.”

Clint dropped his head and Natasha stared daggers straight ahead at Logan and agreed, “Your right, you are a dick.”

“That may be, but you know what I think?” All eyes met him, so he took that as permission to share his observation on the Bartons’ domestic problems, “You both need to get over it.”

“Thank you so much for your opinion.” Natasha commented gesturing for Sam to get the guy out before Clint forgot who he was.

“Hold on Nat,” Sam said, “He may be onto something here.” He received a cold glare from the red head in response but pushed on with his point, “Maybe not as easy as ‘get over it’, but somewhere along those lines. You said Kate talked to you about what her life was supposed to be?”

Logan tilted his head in answer, “Yeah, something about Clint being a big guy at S.H.I.E.L.D., a newly remodeled apartment, and Charlie actually being named Lucy.”

Sam turned to Clint, “Is that right?”

“Close enough.” Clint admitted, “I did just finish redoing the apartment before the wipe. Had another kid on the way and needed more room. We decided on Lucy Beth for the baby, I mean Lucille Elizabeth. The other stuff about rising through the ranks were career aspirations, never really had a concrete plan on that, just staying alive at the job.”

“Sam?” Steve asked knowing that Sam was onto something.

“I’ve seen this before.” Sam commented, “Soldiers who come home. It’s PTSD…and grief.”

Clint quickly dismissed the notion with a huff, but Sam continued, “No Clint, it’s not something you can sweep under the rug, you are going through it. In fact, I think both you and Kate are.” The tone of voice Sam had towards the end of his remark made it sound to everyone in the room that a lightbulb had just gone off in his head.

“Sam works with Veterans at the VA hospital about this kind of stuff.” Steve filled the room in on.

Clint straightened his back out, “Well, thank you for your input, all of you.” The second part was dryly thrown in Logan’s direction, “But I have been in the field a long time. I have seen things that most of you can’t even dream of. I know what I can handle, and I am handling this.”

“How many times have you watched your wife and baby girl blow up in front of you when it was your job to ensure their safety?” Sam bluntly asked knowing that a direct confrontation was the only way to get Clint to admit anything. “How many times did you bang on that steel door yelling her name, knowing in the deepest part of your soul that she wasn’t going to answer you because no one could have survived an explosion of that caliber? How badly did your shoulder hurt from the multiple attempts to break through the door?  How many times did Coulson and Natasha try to pull you away, trying to get you to come to your senses, how many times did you push them to the ground until Nat had to use her widow bites on you? “

Clint was up on his feet and in two seconds had Sam pinned to the wall. “You don’t know anything about that!”

In a calm style that he had been trained in for such situations, Sam replied, “Yes, I do, because Natasha told us. You were wiped believing that they died, and even though it is undone now, you still can’t shake the feeling that they are dead. You know why Clint? Because they are.”

Clint raised his arm ready to punch the lies out of Sam, but Steve saw it about to happen and moved quickly to restrain the arm. Logan watched from his corner he claimed when Sam started, just itching to get involved, but remain distant. Knowing that Steve wouldn’t let Clint go, Sam set about finishing the process he started, “They’re dead Clint, Lucy Beth and Katie-Kate, they died in the explosion. What you have now is Charlie and Kate. A Kate who has lived an entirely different life then you two planned. You have to grieve that loss and deal with everything that has happened. My God, you watched them blow up. You watched your entire life explode, literally, in front of your eyes. You keep talking about how the kids are going to need therapy, well so do you, so does Kate. Because if there isn’t a foundation, how the hell are you going to build a home? If mom and dad aren’t well, then the kids don’t stand a chance.”

Clint broke off the intense eye contact with Sam and pushed himself away from Steve. Walking away from the group, he reclaimed the chair on the other side of the bed that he earlier sat in. Exchanging looks with Natasha and Steve, Sam went for the kill, “I’m sorry Clint, but I wouldn’t be a friend if I didn’t say it and just sat back and watched. You won’t be any kind of husband and father if you don’t get help. You will just be pining for the life that you believe you are owed, the life that you were robbed of. You went to that party believing that you and Kate would just pick up the pieces once the wipe was reversed and act as if nothing had happened over the decade. That was a fantasy that we supported you in because it got you through the mission, now this is reality. This is real life.”

Clint did hear everything Sam was telling him, and he knew it was true. With a look to his son, still in Natasha’s lap he once again made eye contact with Sam, “Ok, so what do I do?”

With a smile Sam answered, “You just did the hard part. Now we find you someone that you are comfortable with to talk to. It would probably be a good idea for you and Kate to see a couple’s therapist as well.”

“Kate sees a therapist every Wednesday.” Logan volunteered. “After the whole HYDRA thing, the Professor made her do it, and she keeps a standing appointment.” He didn’t know why he was helping, or if he was helping at all, but if Kate was going to make a go with this guy Logan wanted the guy to have all of his marbles.

“That’s good.” Sam said with a silent ‘thank you’ in Logan’s direction. He then refocused on Clint, “That means she will probably be very supportive of your treatment and willing to do the couple’s counseling.”

“If she ever is in the same room as me again, I will be sure to ask.” Clint responded sorrowfully.

~~~

“I thought you were helping Charlie decide what to take back to the compound?” Pepper asked walking into Kate’s bedroom at the cottage. Seeing Tony walk around she added, “I doubt the child needs anything from her mother’s bedroom.”

In contrast to the city apartment bedroom that Kate shared with Clint which was bare of anything personal, this room acted as a shrine to the life of Charlie. The room was colored in various greens and pinks, screaming of country cottage chic.  “I am just snooping. It’s really the only reason I came here. Charlie just needs to grab some clothes and stuff to get by. We can get her anything else she needs once we are all there. Everything here I will just have thrown into storage until Kate and Clint figure out their next step.” There weren’t just pictures of Charlie around the room, but photos of the various X-Men in candid moments. One frame caught his attention. It was of Storm and Logan on a sofa. Storm was seated on the left end with Logan laying down and his feet on her lap. Storm was smiling at the photographer, who Tony assumed was Kate. Logan was asleep with a small Charlie on his chest. By the looks of it, Charlie couldn’t have been more than a few months old at the time. Tony didn’t know why, but the picture made him smile, then a realization hit him, “Pepper, do you think something is wrong with her?”

Stepping further into the room Pepper visually swept the environment as she searched for his meaning, “Charlie? No, I think she is…unique, but no, I don’t believe there is anything wrong with her. Why would you say such a thing?”

Shaking his head at Pepper’s answer, Tony corrected, “Not Charlie, Kate. I mean first she is with Clint, then she is with this Logan guy. You think she just likes older men, or…”

“Or maybe I have some unresolved daddy issues?” Pepper and Tony turned and must have looked like the cat caught with the canary in its mouth from the amused expression Kate gave them. “And just a word of advice,” she cautioned as she walked in, “I wouldn’t go around calling Clint an older man. It’s a sore subject from our early days at S.H.I.E.L.D. Today with us both a lot older, it’s not a big deal. However back in the day, our relationship was the office gossip’s dream come true. Clint took a lot of heat for it, especially once everyone found out about Cooper.”

“I went through some similar gossip when Tony named me CEO of Stark.” Pepper offered finding some common ground with her soon-to-be stepdaughter.

“I would assume there were a lot of ‘riding your way to the top’ jokes.” Kate threw at Pepper who nodded in answer. “Been there done that. And as far as Logan goes, he was just a nice guy that I enjoyed time with.”

“Just when I thought all my questions were answered, I form more.” Tony observed. “Kate, darling, I already have to concede that you have had been…intimate twice. I must because the proof is in the next room. Please don’t make your father add to that total, I can’t handle it right now.”

“Fine by me. Really isn’t a conversation I wanted to have with you anyways. So, why are we all in here?” Kate asked.

“I was being nosy.” Tony confessed not seeing a reason to try to make up an excuse. Moving on he started to get to work, “I would suggest you just grab what you absolutely need. Clothes, toiletries, and stuff for work. I will have everything else shipped off to my storage center until you decide where to go.”

After listening to Tony’s plan, Kate offered another, “How about we hold off on any of the big packing and moving until things calm down? Wanda will be using this place until her paperwork comes through, then she will either move in with a sponsor or the school.”

Understanding that a big move may be premature and too much for Kate to deal with at the time Tony agreed, “Sure, not a problem. I just wanted to make sure you and Charlie were comfortable and had some of your own stuff around at the compound.”

“I think Charlie and I are going to stay at the school for a bit longer.” Receiving a questionable look from Pepper and Tony, Kate went on, “I know the HYDRA threat is gone for the time being, but I am afraid what all the sudden changes are going to do to her. She is still scared of them, and just telling her that they are gone is not going to relieve her of her fears. I believe a slow transition would be for the best.”

“Is that the story you are committed to here?” Tony asked his daughter, already seeing the game that she was setting up the pieces to play, “I just need to know the lie you are about to sell those kids that will break their hearts, not to mention a promise that they were all going to live as a big happy family? I will go along with whatever, just know that grandpapa isn’t buying it.”

“I really don’t care what you buy.” Kate said with fire in her eyes.  She didn’t want to start anything with Tony, but again it was becoming her only available option. “I am concerned about my daughter’s mental wellbeing here. As her mother, I will decide what is best for her. Right now, I believe what is best is for her is to come to terms with her new reality in a familiar place, surrounded by familiar and loving people.” To herself Kate added, _she is with people she trusts if it happens._

“And as a mother, what about Cooper’s mental wellbeing?” Judging by Kate’s sharp intake of air, Tony knew he hit low, and to his point. Casting him off she started to go towards her corner desk and look through some papers. He wasn’t going to be ignored, not on this. “As her mother? What about her father? Doesn’t Clint get a say in how to deal with the aftereffects of everything on Charlie?”

With a handful of papers, Kate took the top one off and turned it over to study its contents. In a voice that was filled with discontent on the topic Tony decided to broach, she informed her father, “Clint is too busy hosting his one-man pity party.”

Sharing both a look of sympathy and apprehension with Pepper, Tony went all in, “You and Clint had a fight.”

“Again, not really a conversation I want to have with you.” Kate explained still busying herself with the stack of papers.

Tony walked over to the desk and placed his hand on the stack before Kate could grab anymore, “But it’s a conversation we are having. What happened?”

Frustrated at the world Kate huffed as she threw the papers down in disarray onto the desk, and sat down in the chair, wheeling herself back in the process so she was backed against a wall. A soft chuckle was released when she compared her physical position to her emotional one. “That is between Clint and me. All you need to know is that I have decided to remain here with Charlie.”

Tony sat on the edge of the bed facing Kate, “And what about Cooper? He needs his mother as well. Lila and Nate? Hell, what about Clint?”

“I don’t know!” Kate screamed as she stood. “I don’t know what to do about any of it. I want Cooper with me too, but I know that won’t fly.”

“Did you ask?” Pepper carefully asked, assuming Kate meant that taking Cooper wouldn’t fly with Clint. Pepper knew she was closing in on crossing the line, “Did you ask if you could have some private time with Cooper and Charlie? I doubt Clint would have said ‘no’ to that. He may not say ‘yes’ but wouldn’t have said ‘no’.”

“Clint is ‘all or nothing’.” Tony observed. He too was being more careful with his wording. Kate’s recent shout told him that she was at her limit, and he didn’t want to be responsible for pushing her over it. Unknown to him, she was already over the line and could see it in her rearview mirror. “He wouldn’t want Lila and Nate to feel left out in the family.” He explained to Pepper, “For the marriage to work in any way, Kate has to take it all.”

“I know.” Pepper acknowledged to Tony as if Kate wasn’t in the room and a participant in the conversation.  “It was a discussion I had with him a few days ago. He was afraid that Kate would reject Nathaniel for being Laura’s biological child and Lila for being a replacement for Charlie. He also didn’t know how we would treat the children, you know favoring Cooper and Charlie over the other two.”

“That’s just dumb thinking.” Tony ridiculed. Of course, he would take on all the children. He had already established trust funds and college accounts for all four. As well as earmarked Stark Industries stock for each when they turned twenty-one. None of the Barton children would have to work a day in their life, which he knew Clint would kill him for if he ever found out.

“I told him that. I told him you had already accepted Nate and Lila as if they were your biological grandchildren, but he still had some reservations.”

Sighing as she sat back down, Kate confessed, “And I just confirmed all of them.” She hit every single one of Clint’s insecurities to get him to leave.

“So, the fight was about them.” Tony asked as he signaled for Pepper to close the bedroom door. There was no point in the children hearing about the cause of Kate and Clint’s fight.

“No, it wasn’t about them, but they did come up, and not in the best way.” Kate admitted despite her internal protest not to confide in Tony and Pepper.

Whatever the Bartons’ fight was about couldn’t have been world ending in Tony’s opinion. Probably just heated words exchanged back and forth out of exhaustion and confusion over where they found themselves after the wipe was undone.  Something like remembering a life and family from ten years ago has to take some time to get used to again. Then the fact that they are two totally different people then they were a decade ago must play into the readjustment a fair amount. Tony couldn’t help but wonder if Clint and Kate were looking for an excuse for it not to work, for them to go their own separate ways. Afraid to admit that time had changed them too much to be the people they were.  Admitting defeat was hard, it would just be easier to take the route they did, have an argument and walk away. Tony didn’t want to choose sides, but he felt the need to reassure Kate, “Listen, what is being asked of you is a lot. We all get that. You were robbed of a life with your family and now the only way to reclaim any of that is to take on two children that your husband had with the enemy. It’s a shitty position to be in and I don’t envy you one second of it. But you have to make a call Kate, and you have to do it now.” Tony was unaware that a call had already been made with disastrous effects for everyone looming right around the corner.

Pepper cautioned, “Tony, maybe making a decision right now isn’t in the best interests of anyone.” Kate didn’t look right to her, and like Tony, she was worried about what the stress of her now two arguments would have on her health.

“No, Kate said it herself. Charlie has to accept her new reality, so do all the children. It’s not fair to set them up for happy ever after when the rug is just going to get pulled under them when mom and dad can’t make it work.” Kate nodded her agreement of Tony’s assessment of the dilemma. Thinking that someone may have her back on this she started to let her walls down, However, that was when Tony dropped the bomb, “But as I said to Clint a while ago, my nonnegotiables are as followed: A, you are not allowed to deny Clint my granddaughter and B, Clint is not allowed to deny you my grandson. The kids deserve both of you and each other.  Bottom line, the kids stay together, you and Clint are going to have to learn to share.” Standing up Tony turned to face Kate who was speechless, and Tony could only guess the words she would say to him if she could find them. “On that note, you have already made all of the arrangements for Charlie to go to the compound tonight, she is excited. I will take the kids and Clint back with me, and tomorrow you and Clint will find some time to talk in private and sort this shit out. Maybe after a good night’s sleep for both of you, you both will remove your heads from your asses. If you decide after that, your marriage is over, we will proceed as needed. You guys need a break to regroup, we will find a way that the kids are unaffected. You two want to get back together, we will move you in.”

Kate stood up and pushed Tony away from her, “Who the hell do you think you are and where do you get off telling me what to do?”

“I am your father!” Tony screamed in her face once again reclaiming the space that Kate pushed him from. Pepper moved closer to the pair, unsure of where this was leading. Tony and Kate were almost nose to nose, and both going strong with their Stark temper. Before Kate could yell back any response to Tony’s claim, he started up again, “I may not have been one up until now, but deal with it Kate, I’m here and I am taking this job seriously. I am those children’s grandfather and family.” He said as he pointed to the wall that separated them from the next bedroom, “And if their parents can’t get their act together to help them in this horrible time then it is my job to step in and do it for them!”

“Mom?” Charlie’s voice came through the door, “Why is everyone screaming?”

“I’ll be right there sweetie, no worries.” Kate called back. Her voice was sweet and maternal, but her face was still in a staring match with Tony. In a lower serious voice Kate retorted, “If you think you are taking my daughter off these grounds without me, you have another thing coming.”

“Simple, come with us. If you can’t do that, then yes, she is going to the compound without you. You told her she was going to be with her father and siblings tonight.” Kate opened her mouth to do what Tony could only assume was to start threatening, he cut her off, “If I was you, I would think twice before you make any threats that you can’t take back.” Then Tony saw it, the array of emotions that were going through her eyes, he was able to name each one, hurt, fear, anger, and numerous others. Taking a calming breath, he decided that this wasn’t how he wanted to leave it. This was probably not helping her condition let alone whatever type of relationship he was trying to forge with her. They had made progress outside during their talk, and he feared that he had just ruined it all. “You’re my daughter, I know what is going on in your head. You are weighing how much of a fight you want to put up for this, how far you are willing to go. I’m going to tell you Kate, it’s not worth it. Let her go for tonight. Take a breather. Actually, I would like it if after all of this, arguing with Clint and me, that you please see Dr. McCoy. You will be of no use to anyone if the protocol doesn’t work and I can only imagine the stress these last few hours have done to you.”

_The protocol has already stopped working and I am of no use to anyone right now. That is why I need you all to please leave!_  Kate’s mind screamed in a plead. Maybe it was for the best if Tony and Clint took Charlie as well. After recent events, it was doubtful that Charlie would let Kate out of her sights and she didn’t want to traumatize her daughter any more than she already had been by what she would witness by staying.

“Mom?” This time it was Cooper.

“Thank you for your concern.” Kate hissed at Tony, then reverted to her ‘mom’ voice. “Here I come. Sorry guys, the adults just needed to talk.” Kate opened the door and was almost run over by the pride of children that came in at the first opportunity.

“Why was everyone screaming?” Charlie asked.

“Like your mom said, just adult stuff. It’s all over now.” Tony said, “Charlie, you ready to go?” He purposely refused to look in Kate’s direction.

Pointing to a backpack that was outside the door Charlie answered, “I think so. Mom is going to have to check.” On her prompt, Kate went into the hallway and examined the contents.

In a more than needed energetic voice Tony proclaimed, “Alright, then let’s go get your dad and get out of here.”

Kate reentered the room zipping up the backpack and handed it to Charlie. “Charlie, you will need to grab your toothbrush from the house, but other than that, you have everything. If you need anything I can bring it to you, or Tony will get it.” Tony’s head snapped to look at Kate. She was allowing Charlie to leave without her? Maybe she listened to him and was going to rest and sort it all out in the morning as he had suggested. Tony might actually be good at this ‘dad’ thing.

“You’re not coming?” Cooper asked.

Faking a smile towards her son, she quickly dismissed the concern with, “Not tonight. I have some things I need to do here.”

“You’ll come tomorrow.” It wasn’t a question from Charlie, but a statement.

Bending over to kiss Cooper and Charlie on the head, Kate told them, “We’ll see. You guys just sleep well alright. I will call you tomorrow.” Looking to Pepper she asked, “Do you have Clint’s cell number?”

Pepper nodded and went over to Kate’s desk and grabbed a sheet of paper and pen. Pulling out her own phone she scrolled through her contacts screen until she found what she was looking for. Writing down the requested number Pepper handed it to Kate. “I also wrote mine down if for any reason you would like to get in touch.” Pepper decided that was better than saying, ‘if you didn’t want to talk to Clint or Tony, call me’.

Kate folded the paper and slid it into her back pocket and bobbed her head in thanks to Pepper. “Alright guys, you heard your grandfather, time to go.”

~~~

“So, this is where everyone is hiding.” Tony announced as he walked into the bedroom. He was surprised to find Logan among the inhabitants. “Everyone singing Kumbaya and such?”

“Everyone is just fine.” Clint responded from the chair in a tone that Tony knew well, it was sarcasm. “How did the cottage go?” He asked in an attempt to pry from Tony Kate’s welfare.

“Well, long story short. You know that shit list you are on?” Clint nodded understanding that Kate probably told Tony all about what had happened, “Well, guess who just pushed you out of the top slot on that list?” With two thumbs up, Tony pointed in his own direction, “This guy did.”

Clint had to laugh at that. Then he saw it, in the doorway was Charlie with her backpack on. Straightening himself up in the chair he asked softly towards Tony, “They are still coming?” He didn’t dare hope but did pray for the answer to be ‘yes’.

“Charlie is, Kate has things to do this evening.” Clint knew that Tony was saying that to cover up the real reason for Kate’s absence from the children. If Charlie was there, then the other two were probably close by. “I suggested to her that you two find some time tomorrow to meet somewhere. I think like a small café or restaurant, not the compound or school. You guys need to get out, just the two of you and have a nice, lengthy conversation.”

Standing up Clint went to Natasha and took back his son. “Sounds like a good idea.” Walking past Tony to the door Clint stopped right before he was past the Ironman’s shoulder and whispered, “How the hell did you talk Kate into this?” He would bet his life that Kate wouldn’t let Charlie out of her sight.

“Remember that shit list? It wasn’t pretty. Kate may kill me in my sleep tonight. You know, trained assassins, can’t trust them.” Tony remarked slapping Clint on the back. “Let’s go home guys.”

Clint was almost out of the door when he remembered something. “Charlie, come say goodnight to Logan please.”

Curious stares were traded all around the room. Charlie was oblivious of the whole thing as she ran to the Wolverine who kneeled to receive her. Charlie wrapped her arms around the man’s neck, and he placed his on her back. “Good night Logan.”

Releasing himself from the girl, Logan replied, “Good night pup. You be good alright. And remember to always use your God-damn common sense.”

“I will.” The child promised and tried to leave, but Clint stopped her.

Handing Nate over to Natasha once again, Clint approached Logan and had arranged it perfectly so that Charlie was positioned between the two men. Extending his hand Clint said, “Hey Logan, thank you for everything you did.”

Logan got what was going down, he knew why Clint was doing this. It was for the pup, so he was all in. Accepting Clint’s hand, Logan shook it. “Saving them was my job but protecting them was my pleasure.” With that simple gesture that Kate had suggested Clint felt some of the tension release from his body. There may be a small setback with Kate for the moment, but he will talk to her tomorrow and hopefully repair some of it. Taking Charlie’s hand Clint led her out of the room with a smile on his face. He was taking his daughter home. In fact, everyone in the room was smiling at the truce between the men, but none had a bigger smile on their face than Charlie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	34. Chapter Thirty-Three ~ Head Above Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems that last's week update (chapter 32) caused the entire story to be removed from numerous tag pages. If you didn't see an update last week, hit the 'previous chapter' button to get caught up. I am crossing my fingers that this week's update will fix the problem.  
> As always - you guys are wonderful! Please leave comments and kudos and let me know how you think this story is going. -CP

 

Chapter Thirty-Three

Head Above Water

The single door that was the entryway to Clint’s residence at the compound had been replaced by double doors. Tony acted with all pomp and circumstance opening both doors inwards to showcase the remodeled dwelling. “Behold, your new apartment.” He announced with all the theatrics of a circus ring master, ushering in the family.

Clint walked in holding Charlie with one hand and Nate with the other. Lila and Cooper followed behind with Pepper in tow. Clint had to admit he was in awe. Within only a few short days, Tony’s crew had transformed the two-bedroom apartment into a two-floor home. The uniformed dull gray walls that were the same in every apartment, were now an icy blue. The floor upon entry was granite and it continued into the kitchen and dining room, but once it led into the living room became a soft tan carpet. The old master bedroom had been knocked down to extend the living room and additional seating for the expanded family had been placed. The kitchen had also been renovated. The standard apartment size kitchenette was now a large gourmet style kitchen. The second bedroom was also missing, and in its place was a lengthened dining room table. A small room was next to the dining room, and Clint moved to investigate it. He found a small office, obviously added so Kate could do her lesson plans and still be near the kitchen and living room. Everything had been thought of. Turning around to return to the group and recommence the tour, he found Tony standing behind him. “I really do hope it all works out. Us Starks, we are stubborn.” Clint nodded at that statement and Tony resumed, “But not stupid. If she is as smart as her file says, she will come around.”

“Yeah, I hope it all works out too.” Clint agreed, and the two men trailed as the children and Pepper went up the stairs to the second floor. The ascent was interrupted by the sound of barking. Everyone looked behind them to see the tiny puppy running up after them.

“Lucky!” Lila shouted as she ran down the stairs to pick up the pup. Nate attempted to turn around and follow his sister, but Clint grabbed him before the child could succeed. 

“Let’s get upstairs bud, then you can play with Lucky.” Clint negotiated as he tried to pry the toddler off the handrails one finger at a time.

“My puppy, I want Lucky.” The boy demanded in a rare complete sentence. At that moment Clint wondered about his youngest child. He had wanted Lucky and perfectly requested the dog but hadn’t said anything about wanting his mommy. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Clint wasn’t going to question the three-year-old about it, but he also knew that Nate was present when Laura was killed. How much did the child understand and how much had his tiny mind already repressed?

Suddenly it was all too much and caught up with him. He felt dizzy and grabbed the rail for support. The action didn’t go unnoticed by Cooper, “Dad, are you alright?”

Coming back to his senses by the voice of his son, Clint answered, “Yeah, just tired. It’s been quite the day.”

“When was the last time you ate something Clint?” Pepper asked taking over directing the protesting Nate up the stairs. Lila came rushing up ahead of them with Lucky in hand acting as bait for Nate to hurry up to the landing. Tony moved himself silently behind Clint just in case something happened in the next few steps to the top.

“Umm, really couldn’t tell you.” He replied once they were all upstairs. He received a reprimanding look from Pepper as the kids ran down the hallway, and for some odd reason, knocking on doors as they went. “Guys calm down. Act like I have taken you to a place or two in your lives.” He yelled after them.

Charlie stopped and looked back to her father, “I have never been anywhere.”

“You have been to Australia.” Clint answered rubbing his face with his hand. Why was she choosing now to contest him?

Tilting her head at the information, she thought for a moment, then responded, “I wasn’t allowed off the plane.”

Tony stepped in front of Clint and dismissed the topic, “Still counts. Come on, see your rooms.” At the top there was one room to the right, opening it, Cooper bolted right in. The room was a cobalt blue with dark grey carpeting. There was a study section complete with a desk and computer with a trifold setup of three monitors. Everything a budding inventor would need, all at his fingertips. Directly across the room, pushed against the wall was a queen size bed. The far wall facing the foot of the bed was covered with a gigantic television.  With a laugh directed at Cooper’s behavior, Tony remarked, “Guess you figured out this is yours.”

Lila and Charlie seemed unimpressed and impatient to see their own room.  Pepper let Tony design Cooper’s room but insisted on full design control over the other three. Tony wanted to have a hand in every aspect of the remodeling but had far too much on his plate. Honestly, babysitting the Barton children only kept Pepper’s mind off the drama for so long, and she found the designing of the apartment to be a wonderful task to keep herself occupied. 

Guiding the girls to the next room, Pepper instructed Lila to go ahead and open the door. Pepper had to do a lot of last minute work on the girls’ room. Tony only had one request, Charlie liked rainbows. After witnessing the first meeting between Lila and Charlie, Pepper had taken notes when they were discussing colors. A late-night call into the paint company resulted in the room being divided into two parts, half of the room designed for Charlie, and half for Lila. The ‘Charlie’ portion was marked by being painted in a taffy pink, and Lila’s was in orchid purple. Rainbows were delicately placed in the form of pillows, and stencils on the wall. A soft white carpet covered the floor.

Other than the color scheme, the halves were furnished the same. The full beds were on each side of an overstuff white chair marking the division in the room. Each girl had her own nightstand on the other side of their beds. As in Cooper’s room, a study area had been established for each, a desk complete with supplies to do homework, or crafts and a desktop computer. A television had also been set up in this room on the far wall, with wireless headphones resting on each nightstand in case one didn’t want to hear the television. Pepper took inspiration for the furniture from the nursery Clint and Kate designed for their daughter, all of it was wood with white finishing. Pepper had the fairytale notion of giving Charlie back what she was robbed of prior to birth, a pink and white bedroom.  

“This is my room?” Charlie asked looking up to Pepper.

“You and Lila are sharing.” Clint corrected as he entered the room. “You need to thank your grandfather, and Miss…shit.”

Lila looked mystified at her father’s confusion about Pepper’s name. “Her name is Peppy. Baby Nate named her.”

Pepper beamed at Tony, she had told Clint that she wanted the kids to decide on what to call her, and they have appeared to have decided on a title. Tony had to admit, he liked it, Peppy suited Pepper perfectly. It also seemed that another nick name had been established, “Ready to see your room Baby Nate?” The toddler was chasing Lucky in the hallway but turned to his name being called. “Come on little man, you are also sharing, but with Lucky.” Tony said waving him over. The little boy happily obeyed and was instantly by Tony’s side with the puppy at his heels.  

Clint was probably the most curious about what Pepper and Tony would design for the toddler. Decorating a room for a teenage boy and pre-teen girls were standard, but an almost preschooler was always difficult in Clint’s experience. They are too old for a crib, but not ready for a full bed due to fear of the child falling. Clint understood there were plenty of safeguards and gadgets to prevent such an incident, but he and Laura always just reverted to either a low toddler bed or a mattress on the ground. Stepping into the third bedroom, Clint was pleasantly surprised, as was Nate, who ran right in.

Three of the walls were colored in a shamrock green, the last wall was a pumpkin shade of orange. The room had a khaki painted trim that matched the carpet. This room’s theme appeared to be the jungle. Stuffed animals were all over and there was a fake tropical tree stationed in three of the room’s corners. A small bed shaped to looked like a safari car was tucked into the empty corner of the wall closest to the door. A smaller, dog size version of the bed was next to it for Lucky.  A mini indoor playground was set up with padding underneath. Nate went straight for the slide in the middle of the set up and giggled with enjoyment as he slid down for the first time.

Now that each child was exploring their own territory, Tony led Clint to the last room at the end of the hallway. Clint noticed that Tony and Pepper had placed the children in the exact order he would have if he designed it and appreciated the obvious thought that went into the planning.  Nate, being the youngest was the closest to the master bedroom, with the girls in the middle, and the teenager as far away from the toddler and his parents as possible. Pepper opened the last door and laid out a disclaimer prior to letting Clint in, “I hope I didn’t over step my bounds. I figured you and Kate designed your apartment bedroom to your tastes. I went back briefly before you all went to the party to collect some items Tony wanted for the remodeling and arranged a deep cleaning. I took some notes on what you guys did for both your own room and the children’s. I know ten years can change a lot of things, but I tried to stay with the same concept.”

Stepping in Clint was hit by a sense of longing that he didn’t know was within him. He heard that Tony had gone to the apartment and looked around, but Clint hadn’t given in a second thought other than when the judge asked for documentation to prove he was Cooper’s father. The room was double the size of the children’s. An ash grey carpet spanned over the floor. Three of the walls were also ash grey on the bottom with a white chair rail dividing the grey from a lilac purple top. The last wall that had the bedhead against it was solid lilac.   Clint looked down to his feet to hide the smile of remembrance that the shade was Kate’s favorite color. How did they know that? The bed was huge, it was at least a Californian king. He wondered if there was anything larger than that. The bed’s comforter was a dark shade of purple with a large white fleu-de-lis embroiled on it. The pillows were a wide assortment of different shapes in sizes all either purple, white or grey. The wall opposite the end of the bed was a television with a chrome finished low boy dresser underneath. Placed on each side of the bed were end table in the same finish as were the lamps on top.

Every surface of the master bedroom proudly displayed family pictures. Clint recognized the ones from the old apartment, there were also a few from the farmhouse. Tony must have grab those when he went back after the hospital. He also noticed that the pictures from Iowa were very carefully chosen, none of them had Laura in it. Yes, a lot of thought and effort went into setting everything up.

Clint knew it was his turn to say something but failed to find the words to express what he wanted to convey, leading Pepper and Tony back into the hallway he said what he could, “Thank you very much for all of the work you obviously put into this.”

“I’m going to stop you before you go any further.” Tony interrupted facing him, “I know you are going to say something along the lines of ‘this isn’t permanent’ or ‘it’s just until you find a place’. That’s fine Clint, I understand, you guys staying here forever was never an option for you, and I get that.” Looking Clint directly in the eyes, Tony uttered his next comment which held a double meaning, “I just wanted you to know that wherever you all ended up, you could always come back.”

Turning to take in the entire place Clint placed his hands on the railings that overlooked the first floor, “You put a lot of time, money, and effort into making that point.”

“It was mostly Pepper.” Tony said with a head tilt to his fiancé. “Plus, when the rug rats are here visiting, I want them to have their own space,” pausing to stress his point he continued, “and they will be visiting.”

Changing the subject from his family’s drama, Clint probed needing to think about anything else then his very large and empty bed, “I heard that Steve and them are shipping out as soon as the S.H.I.E.LD. report comes in.”

“That is my understanding of their plans. I think Natasha is hanging around for a few days however. She probably wants to make sure you are all settled in.” Hitting Clint on the shoulder Tony concluded, “But we can talk about this in the morning. The chef is back if you want him to send something up for dinner. I know you haven’t eaten in God knows how long, and probably not feeling up to cooking for the army here, but if you are, the kitchen is stocked.” With the HYDRA threat pretty much gone, the compound was able to go back to a full crew.  “Just hit four on the phone for a direct line to the main kitchen." Finishing with the housekeeping information, Tony reached for Pepper to escort her out.

“I’m going to wish the kids a ‘good night’, then I will be right there.” Pepper said as she went towards Nate’s doorway but stopped at remembering some important information she needed to pass along, “Hey, I gave Kate your cell phone number, so answer any ‘unknown’ caller please.” Clint had to laugh at that, Pepper had to give his wife his own cell phone number, and he didn’t have hers. Also, the concept of his wife appearing on his phone as ‘unknown caller’ was humorous in its own way.  "Don’t forget Clint, the kids start their therapy tomorrow, Cooper at three, then Lila at four. Also, you need to look at some schools I have taken the liberty of selecting for Lila and Cooper.”

Tony watched as Clint made mental notes on each of Pepper’s instructions, “Damn Pepper, anything else you would like to add to his ‘to-do’ list?”

Clint laughed at Tony’s comment, “It’s fine. Pepper is right, it’s a good idea to get them into some type of routine sooner rather than later.” As much as Clint hated the prospect of interviewing schools and talking to shrinks, he knew it had to be done for the betterment of his family, “Thank you for doing that Pepper.”

Pepper went on into the room to say her goodbyes, leaving Tony and Clint in the hallway. Tony took the moment to offer up an idea, “Might I suggest you give Kate a call and work on finding sometime between breakfast and therapy to meet up and talk? You have more than enough babysitters here for an hour meeting.”

Pushing himself off the rails and looking into Nate’s room, he cynically replied, “You can suggest it all you want. I am going to have to wait until she calls me since I never asked for my wife’s phone number.” Clint wasn’t trying to start anything with Tony, it was just how it came out. He was more upset with himself for messing up what every teenage boy knows to get from a girl within five minutes of meeting her, but he failed to get from his own wife.

Returning the tone, Tony questioned, “Super spy can’t find it?”

Allowing a tired smile to appear, Clint leaned against the doorframe, “Billionaire grandpapa can’t text it?” _Come on, don’t make me beg, ‘cause we are getting to that point._

“Oh yeah,” Tony said in surprise, remembering that he had put Kate’s number in his phone the night of the shooting. Reaching for the phone in his back pocket he offered his assistance, “I can do that. No problem. One wify’s number coming up.” A few hits of the phone’s screen and Clint’s own phone alerted him to a new message having been received.

“Thank you.”

“Talk to her. Figure out the next step, however difficult that step may be.”  Both men stopped their conversation when Pepper returned.

“Now the girls.” She said in passing to the middle bedroom.

“Didn’t know this was going to be a goodbye tour.” Tony called after her. “Damn it.”

“What’s wrong.” Clint asked in concern.

Slumping his shoulders, Tony started his way to Nate’s room, “Now I have to go say ‘goodnight’, I can’t have Pepper making me look bad or God forbid, being the favorite.”

“Have fun.” Clint called over his shoulder as he started going towards his own room to change.

“You know the one thing that really bothers me in all of this?”

Turning back around, Clint found Tony standing in the doorway of Nate’s room talking to him. “There is only one thing?” There was quite a bit of things bothering Clint, but he was trying to give it some time. The priority now were the children and making sure they felt safe. Tomorrow, he would work on getting their mother here.

Burrowing his hands into his jean pockets. “Yeah, I know, it’s all a big mess. But don’t you think it’s odd that Kate just allowed Charlie to come with us?”

Gesturing for Tony to follow him into the bedroom, Clint threw out, “You said you convinced her to do that.”

Clint went into the walk-in closet while Tony observed, “And that doesn’t seem a bit curious to you? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I can sell ice to the Eskimos, but Kate should have been a harder sell.” Clint came back out barefoot, carrying a pair of socks, shoes and a dark hoodie. He obviously was not concerned by Tony’s observation, or at least if he was, he wasn’t letting it show. “A decade protecting that girl, and she lets strangers take her home with them?”

Clint added bitterly as he pulled the hoodie over his black t-shirt, “We’re not strangers.”

“Come on Clint.” Now wasn’t the time to argue semantics. What had transpired at the school that evening didn’t sit well with him, and it wasn’t just that he felt all the progress he thought he had made with Kate had been pushed back. Something wasn’t right with her, and it bothered Tony more and more now when he contemplated it. Kate gave in way too easily to Tony about taking Charlie, and he was angry at himself for not seeing it or even thinking about it until moments ago. He may have had only known her for a brief time, but her behavior was questionable to say the least. “Something is not right here, and I think you and I were too close to see it while it was going down. Kate starts fights with both of us, then pretty much throws us off the campus grounds with Cooper and Charlie.”

Sitting on the bed to put on his socks, Clint calmly explained, “Tony, you don’t know Kate. I honestly believe she wasn’t thinking straight and it all just became too much to hold in anymore. I know my head wasn’t screwed on too well either. Everyone is tired. Things were said, and we knew what to say to get a rise out of each other. The conversation wasn’t exactly warm and cuddly.” Clint’s head wasn’t any tighter now, he had been replaying every moment of his conversation with Kate. He also had some reservations about how everything ended but was trying to talk himself into the theory he was trying to convince Tony of now. Maybe if he could get Tony to believe it, he would as well.

“Guilty of that myself.” Tony admitted leaning back against the wall. He wasn’t proud of how he said his words to Kate, but still stood by each syllable of it.

Clint continued with the narrative he had invented to explain away Kate’s behavior, “Kate hasn’t been on a mission in ten years. There is always an adrenaline crash after an assignment. Then you have the wipe reversal, Derek’s shit, and let’s not forget the gamma radiation poisoning. I’m not surprised at all with her reaction.”

How could he not be surprised by how Kate acted? “This has happened before?”

“What?” Clint questioned, as he leaned down to tie his shoes, “Go on a mission, have a shouting match afterwards and be told to get the hell out?” With both shoes on, Clint stood up and walked over to Tony, “Yeah, it’s happened once or twice in the past.”

Again, Tony wondered about the relationship of Kate and Clint.  “However, that was before she was poisoned. After our little ‘debate’, I told her to go see Hank, just in case she had a reaction to it. I don’t fully understand her condition yet, so I am just going off Bruce here. I know an argument like the one I had with Kate would have unleashed the Hulk.”

“She isn’t Banner.” Clint didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. At least they had a clue how to control the Hulk to a degree. “There isn’t a Hulk to release, actually it may be easier to deal with the Hulk then Katie.” It was the first time Tony had heard Clint call her ‘Katie’. In fact, it was the first time he had heard her referred to by that name at all. “Hank gave her forty-eight hours before she needed to be tested again. He trusts Kate to tell him if something is wrong. Hank knows the game, he would act if something was the matter.” Clint noticed that something changed in Tony’s eyes. He had triggered something in the genius’ brain. “Everything will be alright. Tony just don’t read too much into this.”

“Hank knows the game, so does Kate.” Tony was putting the pieces together, and the picture that was forming was one that showed Kate as an incredible performer. “She knows the game and Hank put forty-eight hours on the clock. You and I both may believe that Hank trusts Kate, but it’s Kate Carbonell, not Kate Bishop that he trusts.”

It was too late in the day to try to decode one of Stark’s riddles, so Clint got straight to the point, “What are you talking about?”

“The game.” Tony said in such a way that Clint believed the man had just had an epiphany, of what he was unsure, “You said it yourself. They have been through this time and time again for the past ten years Clint. Kate knows the plays, she knows how to act. Hank is clueless that both the players and the playbook have been switched out. “

“Tony?” Clint cautiously questioned, not enjoying the turn their conversation had taken.

“They are two different people. Would Kate Bishop admit that she wasn’t feeling well and needed help?” Then swiftly added before Clint could respond, “With her children present?”

“No more than I would.” Barton conceded, “But we are talking about concussions and broken bones, S.H.I.E.L.D. everyday kind of stuff, not being poisoned.”

“Kate knows how to play not just this game, but all of them.” Tony didn’t know who Kate was in her S.H.I.E.L.D. days but assumed from what he had seen on the mission, that she was very talented at what she did, “Old spy habits die hard, she would revert to them. She knows how to set you off, she knows what to say and do to make the X-Men believe that it’s just a few physical side effects and her numbers are only a ‘little elevated’.”

“She’s sick, we knew that.” Trying again to get Tony to stop beating around the bush, Clint directly asked, “Tony, what are you thinking?”

“Kate comes back from the mission, and she is feeling something awful.” Tony starts off casually as if he is reading off a check list, “She tries to pass it off as just a slight increase in her gamma levels and nothing more. Hank buys it because she has never not been honest with him, but he’s hesitant, and gives her forty-eight hours before they retest. The last test shows that there is something to be cautious about, but not full blown worried about yet.” Then the pace in his speech picked up, indicating the danger of the scenario, “Kate actually believes that she can settle herself in time to pass the test with flying colors but as the day goes on…”

Finishing the theory, Clint finally understood where Tony was going, “She realizes that its worse then what everyone including herself believes it is.”

Seeing that he and Clint were on the same page, Tony moved closer to the archer, “For her to go to these extremes, its bad Clint. Hank said the medicine was still in its trial phase which means they don’t know how long it will work or the long-term effects of it. They have just been taking it day by day. They never expected her to go on a mission, what that may have done to her.”

Sitting back down on the bed in defeat, Clint shook his head, “She never said anything on the mission.”

“Would she?” Tony wasn’t trying to be snarky or conceding, he really didn’t know the answer.

Reflecting back to the briefing Clint recalled one of Kate’s comments, _“You need me on this one Clint. I want to be on this one, if for nothing else then to get the kids and get some closure.”_

Staring past the open bedroom door into the hallway Clint divulged, “No, she wouldn’t. I would have pulled her off the mission so fast it would make her grandmother’s head spin counter clock wise, and she knew I would.  Plus, Hank made sure that she took her dose before we left for Australia.”

Sitting next to Clint, Tony leaned forward putting his elbows on his knees and folded his hands out in front of him, “The drugs are only a barrier between her white blood cells and the gamma radiation.”

Turning his head to address Tony, who seemed to now have all the answers, Clint posed, “Why would she stop going to Hank now?”

“My best guess? She was too far gone by the time she got back here. Did you see the look Hank gave her when we got back? He knew something was up and Kate knew he knew. They didn’t say anything to each other. He just had her follow him. Going to Hank and being honest with him would only take up time she didn’t have. There isn’t a cure, only a protocol to stabilize the symptoms. They would have hospitalized her until they found a new medication, Hank said that himself, and who knows how long that would be for. She just got her family back, she wanted to be with them, not hooked up to machines and sedated.”

Still trying to convince himself that everything Tony said was untrue, Clint countered, “The test would’ve shown that, if it was that bad. Hank would never have let her out of the office.”

A sad, small smile of pride appeared on the Ironman’s face, “Are you going to look me straight in the eyes and say that Kate doesn’t know how to fake a test?”

“Not a blood test Tony.” Clint answered, again shaking his head, “She tried that once, and it didn’t go well for anyone. It almost cost a lot of people their lives. I got reported on, she got reported on. There was a lot of reporting. Doubt she would do it again.”

Abandoning his train of thought for a moment, Tony allowed the break in topic to inquire about the bit of trivia Clint just imparted about his only child’s past, “What test could she had tried to fake that cause that shitstorm?”

“You call it a shitstorm, we called it Cooper,” Clint said through a chuckle, then became serious once more, “but that is really not the point here. She wouldn’t be able to fake a blood test.”

“Clint, she is a systems expert.” Tony reminded as he matched the man’s serious tone, “All she would have to do is hack the program and change her numbers. Any child in an after-school coding class would be able to pull that off. With the wipe’s reversal, she gained back all of her hacking skills. It would be easy for her to do. She knows that everyone is not dumb and expects her numbers to be a little bit higher, so she makes it look good enough to get her some time before everyone goes into full panic mode.”

That sounded like the Kate Clint knew and loved, “Ok, that is a story that I can buy.”

“She starts off all calm and thinks she can handle it. Probably has been living that way for a while, and it’s always worked for her.” Tony couldn’t even fathom living that way for a week and Kate has been doing it for over a decade now. “It would have to for her to think that she could handle this kind of thing solo. She relaxes, maybe lights a lavender candle, plays some Yanni. Her numbers have always come down in previous experiences. The poison’s effects and maturity are stress dictated. This time is different, she is pushed further then she has ever been. She is stubborn, still believes she can handle it. Then as she puts more work into showing everyone that she’s fine, she gets worse, the barrier is breaking down.”

“That is a lot of ‘what ifs’ there Tony.” They didn’t have any proof to collaborate Tony’s narrative. All they were positive about was that Kate was pissed. “Kate pushing us away because she is upset with us is one thing, but her doing that to her kids is another. I’m still not sure how you were able to get us to leave with Charlie, especially with how upset Kate was.”

“Don’t you see, she did it because of Cooper and Charlie.” Tony announced once again standing up and facing Clint, “The children have been through so much recently, she doesn’t want to add to their anguish. I would even go as far to say she doesn’t want you to worry about her. She panics because her condition was declining faster than she could hide it, and sees her only option is to pick fights with us to get us to leave.”

“She does it, so we would remove the kids.” The light bulb went off for Clint.  Tony was saying something that matched up with Clint’s Kate. She would do anything to protect her children. “Kate doesn’t want Cooper or Charlie to see...” Stopping himself because Clint couldn’t say it, hated even thinking about it.

The full gravity of what went down, and their roles in it hit Tony like a ton of bricks. His eyes unfocused as he retreated into his mind and his intonation was paralyzed into a drone, “Her die.”

Clint thought back to his conversation with Kate in the car going to the school after court. _“For the past ten years, I was at a school with a group of extraordinary people, that kept our child and myself alive and safe. Everyday waking up and praying that today wasn’t the day that the medication stopped working and I would leave Charlie alone in the world.”_ She would pray for that day not to be ‘that’ day, but she knew one day it would be. One day the pills wouldn’t work, one day would be one too many for her body to push back the poison. One day she would lose her fight.

Closing his eyes and lowering his head, Clint paraphrased his wife’s words from earlier, “Charlie wouldn’t be left alone in the world.”

That knocked Tony out of his own reflections, “What?”

“Something Kate said to me that makes a lot of sense now.” Clint disregarded as he stood up and grabbed his wallet and keys off of the night stand, “Call Hank. Tell him we are on our way.”

Tony quickly composed and sent a text message to Pepper. He didn’t want to poke his head into the girls’ bedroom to tell her in person in case Lila or Charlie picked up on what was happening. Going through the list of recent contacts on his phone, Tony found ‘Blue Doctor – McCoy’ and hit ‘call’, “Already on it.”

~~~

_I’ve gotta keep the calm before the storm_

_I don’t want less, I don’t want more_

“Did I really just do that?” Kate exclaimed as she threw herself facedown onto her bed and muffled her screams into a pillow.

“Do what” Storm asked as she laid down on the bed next to Kate. There were too many unexpected events that had recently occurred for Storm to assume Kate’s meaning.

Turning over, she clarified, “Did I honestly just allow my daughter to walk off with him, without even a fight?”

_Must bar the windows and the doors_

_To keep me safe, to keep me warm_

 “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised by that turn of events. I think you have just had enough of the fight.” Everyone was shocked when Tony and Clint left with Charlie, while Kate stayed behind. No one had openly questioned the situation to Kate. Hence why Storm was in her room now, hoping to get to the bottom of it all. “Charlie walking off this property of her own free will is the end to a decade long battle.” Leaning up, Storm rested her head on her hand and looked down at Kate, “And we won.”

Releasing a sigh, Kate asked of her friend, “Then why does it feel like such a defeat?”

“Probably because you didn’t walk off with her. It shows you trust him. I don’t know if you would’ve allowed Logan to do that if the opportunity had ever presented itself.” Sitting up Storm reached behind her and grabbed a throw pillow and placed it in her lap. “So, why did you let her go?”

“It was pointed out that Charlie was looking forward to it, and after everything, I felt she deserved for something in this whole mess to work out. Plus, I didn’t feel I had the right to separate her and Cooper again.”

Nodding at the point, Storm asked for clarification, “Her and Cooper, or her and Clint?”

“Take your pick.” The broken-hearted mother and wife replied. Kate meant that as an attempt at humor, but Storm caught something in the intonation. Kate didn’t sound right, looking down at her friend she noticed that Kate’s skin coloring was paler then normal, also a bit gray.

_Yeah, my life is what I’m fighting for_

_Can’t part the sea, can’t reach the shore_

_And my voice becomes the driving force_

_I won’t let this pull me overboard_

Upon a visual inspection, Storm concluded that Kate was struggling with something. The issue now was if the struggle in question was physical or emotional. Storm could fix the latter, she would just call Clint and make him high tail it back over here. Force the two to work it out tonight, not only for the sake of the kids, but for themselves. In the case it was all physical, Storm was at a loss other than calling for Hank. “Kate, you would say if something was wrong right?”

“A lot is wrong currently.” The statement slipped out before Kate could think. As soon as she said it, she realized that Storm was on the case.

_God, keep my head above water_

_Don’t let me drown_

_I’ll meet you there are the alter_

_As I fall down to my knees_

_Don’t let me drown, drown, drown_

_Don’t let me, don’t let me, don’t let me drown_

In a questionable tone that was voided of emotion Storm asked, “Kate?”

Finally, she could let the mask fall, Clint and the kids were gone. She could be honest now without having to see the fright in Clint’s eyes or God forbid, one of the children’s. “I think the mission tested the limits of Hank’s medication.”

_So pull me up from down below_

_‘Cause I’m underneath the undertow_

_Come dry me off and hold me close_

_I need you now, I need you most_

“Have you seen McCoy?” Storm was aware that Hank saw Kate when she returned, but Kate didn’t look like this hours ago. It was highly doubtful that Hank had seen her in this condition, if he had, Kate wouldn’t be in this room. Expanding on her question, Storm added, “Recently, since your visit right after we got back?”

“No, not yet.” Kate answered in a drained tone. Every word took all her strength to clearly enunciate and speak at a hearable volume. “Wanted to see if I could sleep it off. I was thinking that I could take a short nap and wake up all good again. I mean, that is how it normally goes.”

_God, keep my head above water_

_Don’t let me drown_

_I’ll meet you there are the alter_

_As I fall down to my knees_

_Don’t let me drown, drown, drown_

_Don’t let me, don’t let me, don’t let me drown_

_Don’t let me drown, drown, drown_

_Keep my head above water, above water_

“So, you sent Charlie and everyone away in case you couldn’t.” Storm jumped off the bed and went to the door. Each room was equipped with a ‘panic’ button in the event of an emergency. Pressing it, she waited until she saw the flashing red light to start, indicating that the request had been sent. Running back over to the bed, Storm leaned over Kate, “Kate why didn’t you say something?” When there wasn’t an answer, Storm extended her middle and index fingers and pushed them against Kate’s carotid artery. Her pulse was too slow, something was wrong. Looking into Kate’s eyes, she could see the blue was becoming camouflaged by a cloudy coating, “Kate? Kate?”

_And I can’t see in the stormy weather_

_I can’t seem to keep it all together_

_And I, I can’t swim the ocean like this forever_

_And I can’t breathe_

“What’s wrong?” Hank demanded entering the room and gently moving Storm aside.

“I don’t know, she was talking to me not ten seconds ago.” Storm had always prided herself on being able to stay in control no matter what the situation was, but this time was unable to hide the high pitch worry from entering her voice.

_God, keep my head above water_

_I lose my breath at the bottom_

_Come rescue me, I’ll be waiting_

_I’m too young to fall asleep_

Dr. McCoy started to assess Kate, starting the same way Storm did, check her pulse and eyes, then he placed his hand on the back of Kate’s neck, “She is burning up.” Turning to Scott and Logan who had also responded to the alarm, he yelled, “Get her to the infirmary now!” Returning to Storm he repeated as he motioned for her to follow him to the infirmary, “What happened?”

_God, keep my head above water_

_Don’t let me drown_

_I’ll meet you there are the alter_

_As I fall down to my knees_

“We were just talking. Then I noticed she didn’t look well. Kate said that maybe the medication maxed out on the mission or something. She thought she could sleep it off. After she said that I hit the panic button.”

They both heard the cell phone in Hank’s jacket ringing but ignored it. Kate’s situation was too grave to pause for a moment in order to take a phone call. Whoever it was would just have to wait. “You just may have saved her life by being here Storm. Who knows what condition we would have found her in tomorrow morning.”

_Don’t let me drown_

_Don’t let me drown (don’t let me drown, don’t let me drown, don’t let me drown)_

_Don’t let me drown (don’t let me drown, don’t let me drown, don’t let me drown)_

_Keep my head above water_

Head above water ~ Avril Lavigne


	35. Chapter Thirty-Four ~ We Don't Get Back Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Story update: it is finished! This story will be completed! I am feeling both happy (I actually did this and finished it) and sad (it’s ending, what will I do in my spare time. I am a mother to a two-year-old, so I know, what spare time?) at the same time. I am debating if I want to make a sequel to this story and need input. I know you all don’t know how it ends yet, but are you interested in these characters continuing in the alternate reality I have created? 
> 
> Before we dive into the next chapter, I need to give a shout-out to Medeusa and JesiLea. You guys are so wonderful to me. Your comments have made me laugh and cry (in a good way of course). This is my first attempt of writing, and you guys have been so kind and motivating to me. Many others have left comments (and I am beyond appreciative to you all, please keep them coming), but JesiLea and Medeusa I feel have totally had my back during the vulnerable time of a writer posting to their world their first work. I just wanted to take a moment and make sure I acknowledged them. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has made this journey a positive experience for me. The world needs more people like you! - CP

 

Chapter Thirty-Four

We Don’t Get Back Time

“The poison has reached her bone marrow.” Hank started the difficult conversation with.

“What does that mean?” Clint asked. He and Tony had arrived ten minutes ago and were escorted to Hank’s office without being told anything about Kate. It was easy to assume by how no one would make eye contact or say anything to them that their suspicions about Kate’s condition were correct. The office wasn’t anything special. A desk with a large leather chair behind it and two chairs placed in front. Clint sat on the left while Tony took the chair on the right. The expert spy had read and memorized all the diplomas and awards that decorated the wall behind the leather chair. Hank had an impressive background, while he was an accomplished doctor and founding member of the X-Men, he was also the former Secretary of Mutant Affairs. There were three doors in the room, the one where they had entered through, a door to the left and another to the right. Clint had just hours ago been in the room on the left with Kate and Nate while they were being checked out by Hank. That whole ordeal was a joke now since it was clear that Kate had already started her cover up before even stepping off the jet.  He could only assume that Kate was behind the door on the right, since that was the one that Hank had used to enter the office.

Hank answered Clint’s question by generalizing the effects of radiation poisoning on its victims. “Most people with severe radiation sickness die immediately or within a matter of months. Any delay in death tends to be attributed to bone marrow failure.”

“Her white blood cells?” Tony concluded, speaking for the first time since he and Clint had left the compound.

That was too much of a surface answer for Hank’s liking of the situation and went on to explain the function of the human body’s cell system, “Red blood cells provide oxygen to the body’s tissues while the white cells are vital for the immune system.” Bringing the attention back to his earlier diagnosis, he explained why the radiation entering the bone marrow was critical, “Both red and white blood cells are produced within the marrow. The cells are constantly and rapidly dividing. The bone marrow not being able to produce these cells is fatal.”

“There is nothing you can do for her?” Clint questioned as he tried to sort through the medical information that Hank just imparted on him.

Knowing that he would not be able to handle Hank’s probable answer of ‘no’, Tony interrupted with his own question, “Is it because she went on the mission?” He mentally braced for the answer. Tony couldn’t look at Clint. His guilt wouldn’t allow it, Clint didn’t want her on this mission, and once again Clint was right to request Kate sit out of an assignment. At least if the worst happened, Clint would be able to tell himself that he tried to get Kate to recuse herself from the mission, and no one listened to him, including his wife’s father.

A short nod from the doctor confirmed Tony’s assumption, “It didn’t help, but neither did Kate not being forthright with her symptoms.”

“If I never pulled that string on the dumped data, if I never investigated the wipe, everyone would be fine.” If Kate died because Tony decided it was finally time for him to reunite with his daughter after a lifetime of abandonment, he might as well die with her. Tony was positive that he would be unable to live with the guilt of putting into motion the events that had led them to Kate’s death, his only child.

“I would like nothing more than to lay this all at your feet Tony.” Dr. McCoy informed with blatant honesty, “However, it’s not realistic. Kate was never going to survive her condition, she knew that.”

“But I didn’t.” Clint acknowledged a bit harsher then he intended, but screw it, he was pissed. “So, what happens now?” He then softened his tone, “Is she at least comfortable?”

“Very Clint.” Hank said meeting the man’s eyes. “Kate was practically comatose when she arrived in the infirmary, but we have given her something to deepen her current condition to ease the pain sensations. She isn’t in any pain or aware of her situation.”

“So, she wouldn’t hear anything that we say to her?” Clint asked while regretting what may turn out to be his last words to Kate that she would ever hear.

“That is dependent on her subconscious.” Hank commented as he leaned back in his chair, “She could very well hear any comments made to her, but her mind could interpret whatever is said to be a variety of things.” Offering up a smile to the already visually grieving husband, “It won’t hurt her or you to speak to her. I will bring you to her momentarily.”

“Thank you.” Clint whispered lost in thought.

Sitting back up in the chair, Hank pulled himself up closer to his desk. His voice changed from the ‘professional doctor delivering horrible news’ to a more uplifted ‘let’s fix it’ tone. “Now that the necessary disclaimer is done, and the realistic outcome has been laid out, I would like to discuss possible creative measures to attempt.”

“You have an idea on how to save her?” Clint inquired in a monotone, not allowing himself to hold out hope for a cure.

Folding his hands on the desk’s surface, the doctor cautioned, “A long shot, but I haven’t kept her alive for this long by playing it safe. Granted, the gamma exposure has never matured this extensively before, however, I would like to tell her children that I tried everything.”

On the edge of his seat Tony insisted, “Lay it on me Doc. Whatever it is, I’m in.”

“You sent me Dr. Banner’s research and lab work. While you were on the mission, I occupied myself by going through it.” Hank typed a few keys on his computer and turned the monitor to face Tony. On the screen was of an equation with data scrolling on the sides, “Could you please enlighten me on the prototype sedative that you assisted Dr. Banner in developing to counter the Hulk?”

Moving closer to the screen, Tony was finally able to recall the experiment. Conducting so many experiments in a short amount of time caused some to be mentally disregarded, especially when the experiment was scrapped. “Um, yeah, we ended up nixing it in favor of utilizing Veronica.”

“Veronica?” Hank asked failing to place the name to anything he had read in Bruce’s files.

“A suit that has the ability to take on the Hulk. I used Veronica in Johannesburg, South Africa.” Slightly insulted that the information wasn’t already known by the doctor, Tony added, “It was all over the news.”

“Of course.” Hank smiled in false recognition, because he had no idea what the man was talking about, so he pushed on towards his goal, “May I ask why you never went through with the trial phases on the sedative?”

Rolling his eyes at what had transpired back then, Tony recalled, “There were too many variables that Bruce was not comfortable with. The biggest being that the Hulk would have a last-minute rush of energy as he was fighting off the drug’s effects, causing him to become even worse and more powerful prior to the medicine’s full impact taking effect.”

“You believe that there is something to that Hank?” Clint butted in clueless to what sedative they were speaking of. Tony and Bruce were always in the lab tinkering with some experiment or another.

Raising his hands in warning Hank explained, “I don’t want to make promises. I also don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Dr. Banner has already done the research, he has compiled the data to prove which elements counter the effects of gamma radiation. That is hours, perhaps days, of research I now do not have to do. Time that Kate doesn’t have.”

Since the topic of the sedative had been broached, Tony had been scanning his memory of the medication, trying to find some way it could be of use in this circumstance, “Are you thinking that the sedative may stop the radiation’s effects on her body?”

Tilting his head slightly, Hank confessed, “I experimented in a manner similar to Dr. Banner regarding my own mutation. That research has been the center pillar in Kate’s protocol for the past decade.” Looking off to the right where Clint suspected Kate was, Hank speculated, “I believe that by adding the Doctor’s formula to my own serum could be the key. We won’t be able to cure her, but yes Tony, I think we may be able to stop it before the poison runs its course.”

“I think it’s worth a shot.” Tony had to admit to himself he would have said that to anything that Hank could have thrown out as a possible way to help Kate. He felt a bit more confident in this suggestion since it was based on his own work with Bruce and like Hank had said, they already had all the research done. Now it would just be trial by error. Turning to his left Tony asked, “Clint?”

Clint was angry, remorseful, scared, and so much more, but despite what he was feeling, he remained above all, cemented in reality. There was a possibility that Tony and Hank could stop what was happening to Kate but eventually they would be in this exact same situation again. There wasn’t a cure, only ways to prolong her life. There would undeniably be one day when they will have to admit they had exhausted everything, and they had to let her go. Clint silently prayed that today wasn’t that day…it couldn’t be today. Too much had happened, and there were wrongs that needed to be righted. Selfishly his thoughts turned to himself. He couldn’t imagine having to explain to another child that their mother had died. Doing that with Lila tested the limits of what Clint could emotionally handle.  “This is over my head. I trust you both, just please try something to save her. Like Hank said, we have to be able to tell Cooper and Charlie, and ourselves, that we tried.”

~~~

The left door in Hank’s office led to a hallway that turned out to be the infirmary wing of the Xavier school. Following Hank to Kate’s room Clint paused to put on a mask and wash his hands. The doctor handed both of the visitors a body suit to wear over their attire. Clint thought to himself that it was funny what a person thinks about when under intense stress. He had heard somewhere from someone that it was the brain’s way of self-preservation, focus on anything and everything, but what was happening currently. Clint noticed that the hallway was empty. All students must be in bed. What time was it? Who was teaching Kate’s class tomorrow, or was tomorrow already today? Were her students worried about their teacher? No, they wouldn’t be worried, Kate had been authorized for two weeks of personal time to get everyone situated at home, a home she was not in. Speaking of school, didn’t Clint promise Pepper that he would look through the numerous pamphlets she left him about schools for Cooper and Lila? He put it off initially wanting Kate’s input in school selection, Clint dropped out of school, what did he know about telling the good from the bad? Kate grew up attending fancy rich-girl schools in New York and throughout Europe. Plus, she was a teacher herself, interviewing and picking a school for the kids was best left to her. Clint would go along with whatever as long as Kate was sure the school was good and safe. Didn’t Pepper also tell him that two of the kids had therapy today? What time, and which two kids? His pointless internal monologue stopped when Hank opened the door to Kate’s room, moving to the side to allow Clint and Tony to enter first.

Again, what the mind goes to when it doesn’t want to think about reality. The first thing Clint noticed about Kate wasn’t her pale skin, or her sunken eyes, but that she was in what appeared to be pajamas, a light shade of purple tank top was the only article of clothing he could see, a comforter and sheet were pulled up to her mid-section with her arms on each side of her body. Hank was right, she looked very comfortable, she wasn’t in the generic hospital gown, but probably her own pajamas. She was being kept warm by a thick comforter, again odds were it was her own, not a dreary colored thin standard issue hospital blanket. 

Hank walked past the two family members who stood at the foot of the hospital bed and checked the monitors for the latest updates. Satisfied with the numbers, he commented, “You know, if we can do this fast enough, there is the possibility of her walking out of here. The priority now is to stop the gamma cells and increase the blood cells production. It was the deprivation of oxygen to the body’s tissue that resulted in this.” He indicated to Kate’s body. “As long as everyone washes their hands and keeps this place a relatively germ-free environment, we may be able to keep her alive long enough for us to develop a new protocol. “

“There goes the notion of the kids visiting.” Clint observed in a light-hearted manner refusing to take his eyes off his wife.

“I would say so.” Hank agreed, “Kate can’t fight away any infection right now. A common cold could kill her at this point.”

In mock insult, Tony picked up on Clint’s change of intonation and matched it. He understood what Clint wanted, if Kate could hear them, he wanted the environment to be uplifting and happy. “Are you implying that my grandchildren are dirty?”

“Tony, I am their father and I am telling you, they are dirty little bastards.” Clint said as he watched Tony move closer to Kate, “I have actually seen Cooper and Nate eat a bug. Not at the same time, years apart, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that they have done it.”

All three men shared a small laugh that didn’t reach their eyes. Directed at Tony, Hank warned, “We need to get started on this if there is any hope of it working.”

Tony nodded, to both what he had heard Hank say, and that he agreed with the doctor. Looking down at Kate, unlike Clint, the physical appearance of the woman was all he could see. Just hours ago, she looked so tall and strong. Now in that person’s place was a small, weak woman who was so drugged up that she was clueless to the fact that she was slowly leaving them. Making a silent vow to his daughter that he would try his best he started to leave the room. Tony refused to go far enough to promise anything, that would just be more guilt for him, a broken promise to Kate on her deathbed.  He gave Clint a final look and left with Hank.

~~~

A soft tapping on the door awoke Clint from the twilight sleep he had been in. He was in the chair next to Kate with his feet up on the bed. Letting out a painful moan as he planted his feet back on the ground after extensive time propped up, he called out, “Yeah?”

Of all the people Clint had expected to enter the room, Steve Rogers wasn’t even on the list. He was hoping it was Tony or Hank finally coming up with something to help Kate. “Clint.” The Captain greeted and looked to the bed’s occupant, “Anything yet?”

Standing up as he placed his hands onto the small of his back, Clint leaned back to stretch out the after effects of hours sitting in a chair. “Radio silence from the lab. I want to ask but don’t want to interrupt, in case they are onto something. What are you doing here?”

With eyes still trained on Kate, Steve started, “She fought well you know.” He clarified, “In Australia. Maybe what happened at S.H.I.E.L.D., the Council and data dump, wouldn’t have taken place if she was there. She seemed to be the kind of person that didn’t put up with dirty pool. If the Sandbox mission is any indication of her personality.” As soon as Steve finished his observation, he regretted it. He didn’t regret the point of his comment, but specifically that he said ‘seemed’ and not ‘seems’.

If Clint noticed the use of past tense, he didn’t show it. He had developed the habit in recent hours of watching Kate’s chest rise and fall and counting the seconds between each, panicking when the pattern was altered. It was hard now even with Steve present not to count, but he paused his calculations to agree with the Captain, “I think a lot would have been different if she was there.” Sighing as he furthered his statement, “We wouldn’t be here now for instance.” 

Dropping his head, Steve placed his hand on Clint’s shoulder, “It’s hard to lose time. Money, popularity, health, to a degree they can all be regained. But time, once that’s gone, it’s gone forever.” He looked to Clint and squeezed the man’s shoulder to drive home his point, “Every moment of everyday is a gift. Don’t forget that Clint. We don’t get back time.”

Clint put his right hand on Steve’s which was on his left shoulder and broke from the touch and moved to the head of the bed, “A lesson learned the hard way.”

Putting his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, Steve continued to divulge his wisdom, “Is there any other way to learn and retain an important life lesson?”

“None that have ever worked on me.” Clint responded with a soft knowing grin.

Smiling back, Steve moved his head up and down gently in agreement, “Me either.” Walking closer to the bed. “Sam and I are going to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Director Fury will let us know what information they have gotten out of the interrogations conducted so far. While all vital information to have. Personally, I want to see what they got from Ross. Natasha is staying back to help Pepper look after the kids.”

Taking in every word of Steve’s, Clint contributed, “Sort of curious myself. That and what Bishop had to say.” Steve was still and silent, Clint noticed it immediately. “What’s wrong?”

Clearing his throat, Steve hesitantly told Clint what he promised himself he wouldn’t until Kate was sorted, one way or another. It didn’t seem fair to burden Clint with information that he couldn’t do anything about at the time. “Derek Bishop is dead. Hung himself in his cell. S.H.I.E.L.D. found him about three hours ago.”

“Is that the official story?” Clint asked reading between the lines.

Again, nodding his head Steve continued, “Yeah, the official story. Fury thinks Bishop had too much on too many people. Him being locked up in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cell was too good of an opportunity for anyone to miss. It could have been HYDRA within S.H.I.E.L.D., S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with something against Derek, the Council, or even the United Nations. Whoever did it was good. We may never know who the killer or killers were.”

This was the last thing Clint needed to hear today, not only was Kate at death’s door, and banging on it loudly, the mission turned out not to have accomplished all its objectives. “So, we are back to where we started, HYDRA is still inside S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

“Not back at the beginning, no.” Steve said shaking his head and walking over to where Clint was. “This time we know they are there. The take down of the entire HYDRA organization is going to take some time for the ripple effects to show. Sooner or later, the double agents will need help, however this time there is no help to give. It is believed that anyone associated with HYDRA will be made within six months’ time.”

Not wanting to tell Steve he was a hopeless believer that capturing HYDRA plants was that easily accomplished, Clint warned, “A lot of serious stuff can happen in six months.”

“Again, this time we know it’s going to happen.” Steve repeated.

“What is with all this ‘we’ stuff?” Clint asked half joking, “I thought you cut ties with S.H.I.E.L.D. when the agency fell?”

“I am going to be helping Fury track down leads, take out lone cells here and there, and make sure that HYDRA stays down this time. Sam and Natasha too. S.H.I.E.L.D. is as good as any place to settle down for a bit.”

“Everyone needs a home.” Clint observed, more in recent days from experience.

“That they do. I just wanted to make sure I stopped by and said ‘goodbye’.” Quickly seeing that his ‘goodbye’ could be directed at Kate’s potential of dying, Steve corrected, “To you Clint and the X-Men, they are a good team to have in reserve. Stay safe and stay in contact.”

Clint extended his hand and shook Steve’s. “You too man.”

Holding onto the shake a moment longer, Steve looked Clint in the eyes, “If there is anything I can do, please ask.”

Remembering something that Tony mentioned back at the farm, Clint excitingly replied, “Actually, there is.”

“What do you need Clint?” Steve asked, thinking maybe Clint wanted some coffee, or for him to sit with Kate while he went to the restroom, or even pass along a message to Nat. Steve was not prepared for Clint’s answer.

“Real-estate.”

“I heard you guys would be moving, isn’t this something to discuss with Kate or I don’t know, Tony? Why me?” Maybe Clint needed Steve to help move a couch or something.

Reclaiming his position in the chair next to Kate, Clint gestured for Steve to sit on the couch that was against the wall. “I am going to sell the farmhouse. I have a lot of good memories in that place, but they are all now tainted. I’m sure it will be the same for the kids.” Steve nodded, it was probably for the best. “Then we have the apartment. My family has doubled in size since the last time I stepped foot in there. Have you ever been to Bedford-Stuyvesant?”

Not having thought about the area in ages, Steve easily reverted back to the name that locals knew the area as, “Bed-Stuy? You mean in Brooklyn?”

Hearing someone once again say Bed-Stuy brought a smile to Clint’s face, a real smile. He had forgotten how much he loved his old neighborhood and the people within it. It feels like a lifetime ago he was there. Then he realized that it was a lifetime ago. “Yeah, I know you are from Brooklyn, didn’t know if you ever made it that far north in the borough.”

“Not really, back then. I mean when I was growing up, city blocks were pretty segregated.” Steve didn’t feel comfortable discussing the ethic breakup of the Brooklyn borough, but generalized, “Every group had their own areas, and everyone stayed in their area.”

Clint confirmed it, “I heard that. It’s changed a lot, and for the better.”

“Good to hear.” He really hadn’t heard anything bad about the area while he was growing up, just was an area he didn’t frequent. “What’s with the questions?” 

“I own an apartment building there. Not anything by Stark’s standards, but good people who looked out and protected each other.” Clint had to swallow the lump in his throat when that made him think back to Simone and the ultimate sacrifice she made for his family. “I have a three-bedroom apartment there. Kate and I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., we had an outside contractor deal with the maintenance and accounts.”

“Sounds nice.” Steve observed unsure where they were going with this. He didn’t want to be rude and leave Clint, not with everything he was going through. For God’s sake, the man’s wife was dying in front of them. However, Steve did have places to be, and important business to attend to.

“It was, did all the renovations myself.” Clint said, smiling again, taking visible pride in his work. “I was thinking that perhaps you would take it off my hands?”

Steve repeated the topic of the conversation, making sure that he understood it, “An apartment building?”

Not seeing what was so hard to understand, Clint kept going, “Yeah well like I said the building runs itself, but it’s a big apartment and it’s in Brooklyn.”

Shaking his head, Steve refused, “It’s too generous Clint, I can’t.”

“After everything you did?” He asked with wide eyes at the stupidity of the reason for Steve’s rejection. “The risks you took? All for my family and me. It’s the least I can do. Plus, you are doing me a favor.”

“The Accords. I’m still a wanted man.” He tried to rationalize.

“It will all get sorted out.” Clint promised as he waved his hand at Steve, “You don’t have to make a decision now, just know that it’s always there for you. All you have to do is take the keys.”

~~~

“What do you think about this one?” Hank asked rotating the screen towards Tony for inspection and approval.

Studying the equation and chemical signatures, Tony observed, “We have eliminated every chemical that will result in actual sedation upon consumption.”

“Yes, however, those components are important to any containment of the radiation.  At this point we would be just as well shooting her up with vitamin B.” Hank said in disgust and to emphasize his point hit delete on the keyboard and watched as the screen went black.

Hank had a point. The current test wouldn’t work. They had a few that were promising but would leave Kate comatose by heavy sedation. What they had now would keep her alive but in a vegetative state. Hence the predicament they were in, the scientists were trying to remove any element of the medication that would have a sedative effect on her, the opposite of the original plan for medicating the Hulk. “Why not just add Adderall to it?”

Hank breathed out deeply in frustration and rose his voice at the malpractice Tony had suggested, “Fine, then we will have radiation poisoning, bone marrow failure and a stroke to watch out for. Because the amount of Adderall you would need to counter the sedative elements would send her blood pressure through the roof.”

“A simple ‘no’ would have more than sufficed.” Tony murmured under his breath.

Stepping away from the computer and giving himself a brief break Hank theorized, “What about instead of organic proteins we look more into artificial proteins? Both Dr. Banner’s and my own formula center around the functioning of organic components with the radioactive particles of the gamma radiation.  We have never even attempted the components of artificial proteins with Kate, believing that organic was always the preferred method of introducing foreign chemicals into the blood stream. Switching to artificial would reduce the number of elements within the drug protocol that have a sedation effect.”

“I wouldn’t disregard anything at this point.” Tony consented, then commented on the downside of the suggestion, “However we would have to use some back channels to get anything like that. Bruce told me a few years back when we started developing this that the Food and Drug Administration have strict guidelines about those types of chemicals. I don’t know of anything that is even close to that available domestically.”

Hank nodded his head at the accuracy of what Tony had said, then contradicted, “The difference a few years can make Mr. Stark. Figrastim is a medication some cancer patients who have gone through chemo are now being prescribed. A few months ago, it finished its trial phases and received FDA approval. I have been watching the trials very closely in case it ever needed to be added to Kate’s protocol. Simply put, it’s a bone marrow stimulant. Perhaps the sedative doesn’t have to be as strong if we over stimulate the marrow production.”

Organic chemistry wasn’t Tony’s field of study, so he had to defer, “If you think that will work.”

“I suggest we try the Figrastim next, along with Potassium iodine, Prussian Blue, and Diethylenetriamine Pentaacetic Acid.” Hank announced as he returned to the computer and started to type in the medication orders.

“I am with you on the Figrastim and Potassium iodine. We have to get that marrow production back up, and the thyroid is always affected by radiation exposure, so the iodine will counter that.” Tony recalled Bruce saying something about the thyroid being the first thing to go after radiation sickness. “However, if you read Bruce’s notes on Prussian Blue and DPA, you will see his reasons for eliminating them from the initial drug protocol.”

“I have read the notes, but I have to professionally disagree regarding this particular case.” Dr. McCoy said as he removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Dr. Banner was looking for a cure of sorts. He wanted something that would either eliminate the radioactive particles from his blood stream or fully sedate and control the Hulk. He wouldn’t accept anything in-between. The problem with that is the gamma radiation his serum gives off causes the particles to reproduce faster than Prussian Blue or DPA can eliminate them. We don’t have such high expectations Tony, we just want her back at status quo, and conscious. If we give her the Figrastim to cause marrow production to go into, simply put, overdrive and the Prussian Blue and DPA in combination to removed radioactive particles, even if it only removed half of them, then she has the possibility of coming out of this even better then she was a year ago when we started the last protocol.”

After a slight pause Tony answered simply, “No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?” Hank said in complete confusion of where he lost Tony in his explanation. Hank thought that he had been very clear in his proposal.

Tony expanded his point to the doctor, “No, it’s too simple.”

Putting his glasses back on, Hank explained slowly, as if Tony was a five-year-old, “Tony, things don’t have to be new, shiny and complicated in order to work.”

In a desperate and tired voice Tony asked, “Do you think it will work?”

“I, sadly, am thinking that it may be her only shot of a drug protocol without sedation. The only way she would have the chance at anything remotely resembling a normal and comfortable life.” Hank confessed matching Tony’s fatigue.

This doctor had kept Kate alive for ten years, and if Hank thought this was his daughter’s best chance at survival, then Tony was with him to the end of the line, “Then tell me what you need, and I’ll get it for you.”

 

 


	36. Chapter Thirty-Five ~ Fair

 

Chapter Thirty-Five

Fair

It was a waiting game now. Hank had administered the newly invented drug cocktail into Kate’s I.V. All they could do now was wait. Dr. McCoy had suggested they run labs on Kate in four hours to see what the medication did, if anything. Until they had any proof of her improvement, she remained under heavy sedation to lessen the stress which was escalating her condition.

Tony was moved by what he could see through the infirmity windowed door leading into Kate’s room. Clint was seated next to the bed and was holding Kate’s hand. His lips were moving, speaking something to the sleeping beauty. It was what had stopped Tony from going in. He didn’t want to interrupt Clint, not sure if the archer was praying or just having a private one-way conversation, so Tony just remained at the window watching. Clint loved her, it was so obvious a blind man would be able to see it. Tony may have teased Clint and Kate about it, but truthfully deep down, he was happy his daughter had found a life and love with the archer. Derek had told Clint the day Cooper was born that he couldn’t be a good husband and father. Everything Tony had witnessed this week proved Derek’s prophecy to be wrong.

Clint had refused to leave the room. Only stopping his quiet vigil three times. Once to speak to Steve, another was to call Sam and ask if he could put off going to S.H.I.E.L.D. for a little bit so he could monitor the kid’s therapy sessions with Pepper. Having experienced the man’s counseling abilities up close, there was no one else Clint trusted to represent him in such a setting. The third time he pulled away from Kate’s side was when the concoction that Hank and Tony came up with was about to be given to her. He had asked for Tony and Hank to explain the new medication to him outside in the hallway, afraid of Kate overhearing anything that could potentially upset her.

“How is she?” A voice asked from behind Tony. He didn’t need to turn to identify who was speaking to him, Tony would know that voice anywhere. It was Steve.

Still watching the couple through the window, he responded, “The same. We won’t know for a few more hours if the experiment worked.”

Steve was able to catch a look at Clint, “I wish there was something I could do. It’s not fair. She gets back her life just in time to lose it.” The soldier temporarily forgot that he was saying that morbid observation in the presence of the dying woman’s father. “I’m sorry Tony. It’s not fair to you either.”

No, this wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair to Kate for the very reason Steve just spoke. It wasn’t fair that Kate could die and leave Clint alone with the responsibility of four children to raise. It wasn’t fair that Tony would never be able to be any kind of father to her, or at least try to heal her from his decades long neglect. No, none of this was fair to anyone.

His last words to Kate were heated, and he allowed it to prove his point. Tony did it because he thought that the next day, after a good night’s rest, they would be able to move on. Writing off their confrontation as just the result of stress and exhaustion. He had gambled and lost. Here they were, the next day, and there was an extremely high possibility that it could be her last. If that happened, there were only a few good moments Tony could happily look back on of his time with his daughter. Her thanking him before the wipe was reversed, the reunion outside the school between Clint, Kate, Cooper, and Charlie, and finally, his most cherished memory, them sitting together beside the lake. Three moments don’t make a relationship, but it could possibly be all Tony would ever have with his only child.

“She wanted me to forgive you.” Tony flatly said to the door.

Not having any context to attached Tony’s statement to, Steve asked, “What?”

Repeating his comment, adding more details, Tony said as he finally looked at Steve. “Kate, she said I shouldn’t blame you or Bucky for what happened to my parents.”

Steve was at a loss for words. He barely knew the woman, or she him. It was beyond amazing that Kate had found some time in all the chaos to speak to Tony about Bucky and himself. “That was very thoughtful of her.”

Meeting the man’s eyes, Tony bluntly inquired, “You know why I am even thinking about Bucky?”

Breaking the eye contact because Steve knew exactly why Tony was thinking about the Winter Soldier, he forced himself to refocus on the grieving father’s face, “Because HYDRA is responsible for yet another member of your family dying?”

“Exactly.” Tony said as he started to pace away from Kate’s door, turning back to Steve he put his right index finger to the ground and moved it around in a circular motion, gesturing to their environment. “Do you know that we wouldn’t be standing here if Bucky didn’t go through with his hit? My parents were working with some people, probably not the best kind of people, to take Kate away from Derek. Bucky killed them before they were able to make the deal. If he didn’t kill them, I would have raised Kate, not Bishop.”

“I didn’t know that.” How could he? “Again Tony, I’m sorry.”

“There is always another person.” Tony muttered in his exhausted state.

Steve watched the man pace the empty hall, “Excuse me?”

“It is never just one person responsible. Yes, there is usually one name you can assign to the deed. You know, the guy who pushed the button in Africa and blew up my daughter and granddaughter? That guy probably had a name. And we already know the name of the person who crashed my parents’ car, shot my father and strangled my mother. That person had a name, James Buchanan Barnes, Bucky.” Tony stopped as he looked at Steve, but he wasn’t looking at Rogers, he just had his view trained in that direction. Tony wasn’t talking to anyone, just talking. It was a bit unnerving to Steve. He found himself worried for his friend’s, and yes Tony was still his friend, mental wellbeing. “But they may have done it, but they aren’t wholly responsible are they?” Now Tony was speaking to Steve, including the Captain in on his sudden enlightenment, “Someone ordered that guy in the Sandbox to blow up the lab with Kate in it, someone ordered Bucky to be on that road at that time and get the formula out of the trunk. And the person who ordered that stuff was probably ordered to order it by another guy. Steve, it’s just a long line of ‘another guy’.” Shaking himself out of the dark tunnel he was falling down, he addressed the Captain, “But no one ordered you to lie to me about Bucky’s involvement, did they?”

“I didn’t lie, I just didn’t tell you.” It was a pathetic attempt at a defense, but Steve didn’t want to fight, not about this.

“There are a few people who would say those are one in the same. The omission of the truth is still not telling the truth, a lie.” Tony wanted to give their friendship another chance, but it was all contingent on Steve’s answer to his next question, “Where is he?”

“You know I am not going to tell you. I can’t.” Shaking his head as he said it, Steve felt horrible.

“Wakanda.” The Ironman stated.

Confused, Steve started, “If you knew, then why…”

“Wanted to see if you would be honest with me for once.” Tony explained cutting him off before Steve could finish.

“Tony…”

“But she wanted me to forgive it all.” Tony once again returned his sights to the occupant in the bed. “And it is the only thing she had ever asked of me.” Tony turned to Steve once more and with the right side of his hand tapped Steve’s right shoulder before crossing the soldier’s body and repeating the gesture on the left, “You are forgiven.”

It couldn’t be that simple, not after everything the Avengers had gone through, the consequences they have had to endure. The truth that was revealed, and the players in that truth. After all that, Tony simply forgives him? “Just like that? Because Kate asked you to.”

“Just like that, because Kate asked me to.” Tony repeated as he nodded his head, then moved it to the side to add, “There is also the fact that you risked your freedom and that of your team’s to join the fight and save my grandchildren. I know that was to pay Clint back for any debt you believed you owed him for the Airport fight, but I still appreciate it.” 

Steve offered an accepting smile to Tony and extended his hand. To him it wouldn’t be official until they shook hands. Tony rolled his eyes and complied with the physical request. Looking behind Tony, Steve saw Professor Xavier moving towards them. Tony caught that Steve was looking at someone and turned, hoping it was Hank with good news.

“Mr. Stark, Captain Rogers, good to see you together.” The Professor greeted the men. “I was hoping to find you both together, I have spoken with Director Fury.”

Glad to finally be hearing something about the mission, Steve optimistically questioned, “They have a conclusion on the mission’s success yet?”

“Early analysis shows that the overall objectives were met. It is almost a victory.” The Professor reported.

Tony hadn’t known Charles Xavier for more than a few days, but from his brief time with the man, he knew the Professor selected his words very carefully. “Almost?”

Apologetically, Xavier looked to Steve and informed him, “The United Nations has repealed its prompt decision of suspending the Sokovia Accords.”

Tony was shocked. How would they go back on their decision and reinstate the Accords? There was no way in hell the investigation was completed. That would take months. There had to be interviews, hearings, and so much more before the U.N. could even think about debating reinstating the law. “Even after what Ross did?”

“They are blaming that on the American government, not the actual management of the Accords. ‘Secretary Ross’, a title that I believe at the end of the investigation he will no longer have, didn’t act in his official capacity, and the U.N. believes that the law was not violated or corrupted.” Xavier offered as an explanation.

Steve looked around his surroundings, “What does that mean for you, the X-Men and the school?”

Charles confessed the implications of the recent events, “It means sir that it is just a matter of time now before we are forced to sign.”

“I am sorry.” How many more times was Steve going to have to apologize today?

“We have always been prepared for this.” The Professor said as he acknowledged Hank McCoy joining the group.  “Hank has used some of his government clout to manage how the United States’ government interprets the Accords, and how it defines an ‘enhanced being’.”

“You are aiding in the revision?” Tony asked surprised, so while he was window watching, Hank was doing back-door government deals he concluded.

Observing through the window at Kate, Hank then looked down to his tablet and spoke as he sent the request for the monitoring devices in her room to run vitals once more, “No, I merely suggested that the government agency handling the Accords was not fit to properly support and supervise the enforcement of this particular international law.”

“Which agency is?” Tony questioned praying that it was any agency but the Department of Defense. That department would just see everyone involved as a weapon to be pointed at the enemy.

“There is talk of moving the domestic supervision of the Sokovia Accords to the Department of Mutant Affairs.” Hank reported looking back up once he had the newest numbers.

“Not the Department of State?” Steve asked.

Professor Xavier enlightened the men, “No, it is believed that in addition to Hank’s previous stated concerns, recent events have caused that certain department to harbor a bias towards the effected population. Supervision under D.M.A. would give the impression that everyone has a say and representation, on American soil at least.”

“The Avenger’s would then fall under the supervision of the Department of Mutant Affairs?” Tony asked wondering how that would work.

“That is correct.” Hank confirmed.

“Who is the Secretary?” Anyone had to be better than Ross, Steve thought to himself, and knew Tony was thinking the same notion.

Shaking his head, Hank explained, “No one. The cabinet position has been empty since my tenure.”

“They will just have to fill it then.” Tony said believing it was as easy as conducting a few interviews and putting someone in.

“For that to work, you would need someone to have the complete trust of all parties involved. That is the Mutants, the Avengers, the Government, and the American people. Even you Mr. Stark would have to admit that it is a large order to fill.” Professor Xavier theorized on the demands the position had to handle. “And I fear that without such trust in the position, whoever it is, would just breed animosity and fear among everyone.”

 The Professor was going to go on with his ideal job description for the Secretary of Mutant Affairs but stopped and quickly turned his head to the door with a visibly concerned expression. Immediately Hanks’ tablet let off a high-pitched alarm sound. Clint pushed the door open to the group, “She’s choking!”

Hank ran in with the rest of the group on his heels. Clint was correct, Kate was having trouble breathing, and making choking sounds. She was ventilated, so there was only a few possible reasons for her sudden symptoms. Not wanting to jump to conclusions, Dr. McCoy put his stethoscope into his ears and started to listen to Kate’s chest as he kept his eyes on the monitor. 

“What’s wrong.” Clint demanded from the doctor.

Removing the buds of the scope from his ears, Hank threw the item around his neck. “Please leave.”

“Not a chance in hell, what is going on.” Once again Barton demanded from Hank, the panic now noticeable in his voice.

Specifying his request Hank repeated, “Captain Rogers, please remove everyone from the room.”

Steve knew if he was being asked to removed Clint and Tony physically from the room, there had to be a damn good reason behind it. Tony would try an attempt to talk his way into staying but wouldn’t fight Steve or Hank on it if the doctor continued with his insisting. Clint on the other hand, would give everything he had, and then some, to remain by his wife’s side. Sighing at the predicament he was just forced into, Steve breathed heavy and turned to Clint. The look that Clint shot him was communicated to the soldier as ‘just try it’. Accepting what was his only choice, Steve looked down to his feet then immediately threw a punch at Clint, knocking him to the ground unconscious.

“Not exactly what I envisioned, but it will do. Please take him to the other room, and I will check him out once I’m done here. Gentleman?” Hank said to the three remaining men and waved his hand towards the door.

~~~

Professor Xavier, Tony and Steve waited outside the door for the reemergence of Dr. McCoy. Checking his watch for the billionth time, Tony huffed at the gap in time between Kate’s choking and the current time. It had been thirty-five minutes. What the hell could Hank be doing in there for over a half an hour? Nurses had been coming and going, but no one had said anything to the waiting visitors.  Tony caught himself looking at the Professor, he had to know what was happening, he was after all a telepath. Xavier had a serene look on his face, not giving anything away.

Crossing his arms Tony addressed Steve, “Clint is going to be pissed when he wakes up.”

“It was my only choice Tony.”

Increasing his volume Tony accused, “You didn’t even ask him to leave, you just hit him.”

Xavier told the men as a method to end the debate, “He wasn’t going to leave.”

Leaning forward towards the Professor, Tony remarked, “Really, now you are going to enlighten us with what you know from your mind reading abilities? How about you tell us what Hank is doing in there?”

“It isn’t my place.” Xavier started, “I know a fair amount of medical knowledge, but nothing compared to anything of this scale. It is for the best that once Dr. McCoy is confident in his results, for him to explain what happened to Katherine.”

Seeing that they were going to have to accept that for the time being, Tony directed at Steve, “You did lock the door, right?”

“Oh yeah, there is no way Clint is getting out of there.” Steve reasoned.

Tony added, “Air vents?”

Steve forgot about that, Clint had been found numerous times crawling around in the air vents at both the Avengers tower and compound, “Always a possibility.”

As if right on cue, all three of the hallway’s occupants turned their head to the room next to Kate’s when they heard the very angry banging on the door that separated them from as Tony predicted, a pissed off Clint. “Unlock this damn door now!”

“What’s the magic word?” Tony yelled over the banging finding some amusement in what was transpiring.

Hank exited Kate’s room finally and directed his attention on the room Clint was contained in. “Is that Clint yelling?”

“Yeah, he’s awake. I think he’s fine, physically that is.” Tony responded.

Hank raised his eyebrows and inclined his head towards Tony at the obvious observation, “I would still like to assess him, but you can release him.”

Tony was hesitant to act on the doctor’s suggestion, “Do you have some answers? ‘Cause I don’t recommend it unless you have some information to give him.”

“Dr. McCoy said we can release him, so that’s what we are going to do.” Steve declared walking over to the door and entering the key code Professor Xavier had supplied him with to lock in the archer in the first place.

Steve didn’t move fast enough, because as soon as the door was unlocked, he was hit in the face with it. He was blinking away the sudden impact when Clint started to yell at him, “What the hell Steve?”

Putting his hands out in a gesture of innocence, Steve explained his actions, “I’m sorry, but it was the only way to remove you from the room and give Hank the space he needed to work.”

Sending a cold stare at the Captain, Clint turned and approached Hank, “What happened? How is she?”

“She is fighting the drugs.” Hank reported.

Turning his head away in defeat and frustration as he started to pace again with his hands on his hips, Tony stated, “It didn’t work.”

Hank lifted his hand to stop Tony, “I apologize, I need to be more precise. She is fighting the sedation medication. That was the reason for the choking and difficulties breathing. She is now able to breathe on her own.”

“How is that possible? The sedation and lack of red blood cells hampered her ability to breathe, that was why she was put on the ventilator in the first place.”  Xavier questioned.

Smirking at the mystery that is Kate Bishop, Hank explained, “Her consciousness is increasing. She was ventilated which was why she started to choke. Her lungs were exhaling on their own while the machine was forcing in air to mock inhaling and vice versa.” Looking to the other three men, he continued, “You don’t need to be a doctor to see where that could cause some problems. However, I have removed the breathing tube, and she is doing well on her own.”

“Kate was never good under sedation, she hates not being in control.” Clint informed the group, “That, and agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are trained in methods to counter any influences we may be placed under.”

Rolling his eyes at the late information Tony pointed out, “That would have been excellent information to have prior to this moment Clint.”

Not paying Tony any mind, Clint asked the doctor, “If she is fighting the sedation, that means…”

Stark finished the statement, “That means she is fighting to come back. The new protocol worked.”

Smiling now at the good news, Hank reported on the newest test results, “I ran labs. Her cell count has already doubled.”

“Doubled?” Tony questioned in surprise, “That’s incredible. It has only been a few hours.”

“So, she will be alright?” Clint probed hesitantly as he stuffed down deep in his stomach the gleam of hope that wanted to invade his mind. 

“We need to run a few more test and monitor,” Hank explained cautiously, “but I feel confident that we are out of danger for the time being.”

Sitting down in one of the chairs in the hallway, Clint rubbed his face with both hands, relieved that they just may have beaten this one, “When will she wake up?”

“I would never force Kate to do anything she doesn’t want to do, especially when it really isn’t needed. I would prefer to keep her in a sedated state until all labs were conducted, and we have a more detailed recovery plan. However, she is making it painfully clear that she wants to wake up. I don’t want to risk an increase in her stress levels by having her fight against the drugs. I have already ordered the sedatives to be slowly decreased until she begins to awaken.”

“When do you think she will be discharged?” Clint questioned in a tone that didn’t give away any hint of emotion. He needed to know the plan and what to expect. He would eventually need to go back home and be met by the interrogation techniques of his eldest daughter as to the whereabouts of her mother. Clint just wanted this all to be over. If the real reason that Kate stayed at the school instead of coming back to the compound was to prevent the kids from seeing this, then there were no longer any barriers preventing him from reuniting his family under one roof. He just now needed her well enough to come home.

The doctor went over to the man, “One step at a time Clint, one step at a time.” Then Hank added with the hint of a humorous undertone, “But I suspect it won’t be long, she hates being in the infirmary, and the staff hates having her here. Allow her to wake up, and we will see where we stand after that.”

~~~

The first thing that registered in her mind was that the room was too bright. Slowly, Kate’s brain started to process the visual information she had. The ceiling tiles were familiar. Where had she seen them before? It took but a moment for her to remember where, the medical wing at the school. She was in the infirmary. Why was she here? Willing herself to backtrack on her memories and search through the fog that clouded her mind, she last remembered feeling so tired that she just wanted to sleep. She couldn’t sleep because she was talking to Storm about something really important. What were they talking about? A voice called her attention.

“You have a lot of explaining to do girlie-girl.”

Turning her head to the left, she saw Clint sitting in the chair with his legs up and crossed at the ankles on the bed. Still fighting the sedatives that she assumed were the reason for her jumbled thoughts, she attempted to once again put on her mask of the Kate who was ‘fine’. It took everything she had from her training at S.H.I.E.L.D. to form a complete thought deemed worthy enough to verbalize against Clint’s greeting, in a strained, horsed voice she ordered, “Get your nasty shoes off my bed.”

“They’re not nasty.” Clint answered, bending over so he could pull at the elastic on the shoe covers, “I have these little bootie things on them.” He then reached over to the side table where a pitcher and glass were. Pouring some water into the cup, he handed it to her, “You had a breathing tube in for a few hours, your throat will be dry and scratchy.”

“Thanks.” She said before taking a small sip, then handed the glass back to Clint. Even with the fuzziness lingering in her brain, she decided that now was as good a time as any to get this show on its way. That way if she said anything hurtful or wrong to Clint during this conversation, she could later if need to, blame the medication. “So, what’s up?”

Clint responded indifferently as he got up to put the glass onto the wheeled table stand. “A few things.” Wheeling the table next to her bedside for easier access to the beverage, he locked it in place and looked to Kate, “But I wanted to make sure you were healthy enough before I killed you.” Moving to the foot of her bed, Clint started in, “What the hell were you thinking Kate? Lying to everyone? Changing your results? Were you even thinking?”

“How did you…”

Clint stopped her, who the hell did she think she was talking to? “Tony figured it out. Not fast enough to prevent anything, but lucky for us, you were with Storm.” There were a few more comments he wanted to say, but Hank walked in behind Clint.

The doctor, as normal, first went to the monitoring devices’ information screen to read vitals and adjust a few things. Keeping his eyes on the newest numbers that were just now appearing, he greeted, “Welcome back Kate.”

“Hank.” She returned. Looking to Clint as she probed the doctor and asked point blank, “If I came to you, would you have been able to prevent it?” Kate knew the answer but wanted Clint to hear it.

Closing his eyes upon hearing the question, Hank knew what Kate was doing. She was defending the choices she made on behalf of her family and using him as backup. He reopened his eyes as he faced his patient. Shaking his head, he answered, “No, we would not have been able to avoid it. That doesn’t mean you were right to lie and change your lab reports. Your little ‘con’ cost us hours of possible life saving measures, hours that could have cost you your life.” He could see out of the corner of his eye Clint silently nodding to Hank’s reprimand.

That wasn’t exactly what she wanted Hank to say, but it would do, moving on she asked, “So, what’s the damage?”

“You went into bone marrow failure. Technically, you still are. The new protocol that your father aided me in developing is reducing the radioactive cells and increasing your marrow production.” Kate would want the details, Hank was already working on an information packet for her to read over later. “How are you feeling now?”

“Pretty good actually.” She answered with as much pep as she could muster.

Typing on his tablet, Hank observed, “I’m sure you are. Your gamma levels have never been this low, or your cell count this high before.”

“Can I go now?” Clint was shocked by his wife’s question. She asked it as if she was seeking permission to leave a meeting and not a hospital room that she almost died in mere hours ago. “I don’t see the point in taking up a bed and the time of the nurses. Come on, you yourself said that my labs have never been better.”

Turning to Hank, Clint realized that Charlie honestly came by her stubbornness. Scoffing at the question, he accused, “Are you even slightly taking this serious Katherine?”

Kate’s eyebrows rose at the use of her full name, “I am taking this very seriously Clinton. I have been taking this seriously for over a decade. I know what I am doing.”

“Dying?” Hank couldn’t help himself, he was still upset with what Kate had done. “Because that was what you were doing, and you were fully aware of it.”

“My life, my choice.” She declared, confirming Hank’s statement and at the same time Clint’s fears. “I thought everyone agreed that I was eventually going to die from this, all the protocols you can invent will never change that fact Hank. This is going to kill me one day. I felt that yesterday was the day, and I made some choices.” Glancing at Clint she continued, “Agree with it or not, I made choices. It sucks, I get it. But I knew what was happening and saw that the last thing I could do for my family was to shield them from it.”

“But yesterday wasn’t the day, because we fixed it. I already said you cost us hours of medical treatment Kate, and we don’t know yet what will result from that.” Hank pulled a chair from against the wall to Kate’s bedside and sat down. He gestured to Clint to do the same. Clint obeyed the request and returned to the seat he had been occupying the better part of twelve hours in.

The doctor waited until Clint sat, then sighed heavy while looking down, preparing himself mentally for the conversation that was about to take place. Once he was as ready as he could be, he looked back to Kate, “I always said that I would respect your wishes, only push this as far as you were willing to go. When you were done fighting, everyone would respect the decision, and we would make it as comfortable and peaceful as possible.” Clint had to look away. Hank wasn’t just saying it to Kate to remind her of promises that he made her years ago, but to Clint as well. He was telling Clint that Kate was correct, it was her life and ultimately, her death. She should be able to make the call, it was her choice. Hank posed the question to Kate that would not only decide her fate, but the fate of the entire Barton and Stark family, “So, the medication is currently working, but I need to know now, are you done?”

Not allowing any time for Kate to answer, Clint jumped in, “Hank can I speak to you please?”

Hank nodded and placed his hands on the chair’s armrest to push himself out of the chair. Clint also stood up. Kate looked back and forth between the two men, “Now you are just going to go behind my back and make decisions without me?”

“Yes, how does it feel Kate?” Clint came back with and left the room with Hank following.


	37. Chapter Thirty-Six ~ Worthwhile

Chapter Thirty-Six

Worthwhile

Tony had been on the phone with Pepper, checking in with her and the kids after their first night in the new place, particularly Charlie. Pepper pleasantly reported that everyone was fine, and as expected slept in after the week of turmoil. Charlie, of course, had asked about her mother only a few times shy of a thousand. Pepper was stalling by saying her mother had meetings at the school and was unable to take any phone calls.  She and Tony had both agreed that it should be Clint that speaks to Charlie about Kate’s condition, when there was something to tell her.  

The phone conversation was abruptly ended when Hank passed hurriedly by Tony. The doctor didn’t say anything as he went into Kate’s room. Once again, Tony stationed himself outside the door’s small rectangular window and was relieved when he saw that his daughter had woken up. He fought his instincts not to rush in to the room as well, deciding instead to sit down in one of the guest chairs outside and wait to be told that it was an appropriate time to go in. He was more than a bit hesitant speaking to Kate after their last conversation. That didn’t mean he didn’t want to, he just didn’t know what he would say. It was best for Clint and Hank to initiate first contact, then Tony would follow their lead. He was busy going over what to say to Kate when he was finally able to see her and had lost track of time. It was almost as if no time had passed at all between Hank going into the room and when the doctor walked out with Clint. When Tony saw the pair exit, he was up on his feet. “What’s going on?”

Clint only rolled his eyes, it was Hank who spoke, “Let’s speak in my office.”

Clint was gearing up to start yelling as soon as the office door was closed, but Hank beat him to it as he was sitting down behind his desk, “I honestly don’t know what she will decide, but I do know that whatever it is, we must respect and abide by it.”

“Decide what?” Tony suspiciously questioned looking to Clint.

Clint shook his head at Hank, “You as a doctor may have to, but I don’t have to do shit. She doesn’t just get to decide it’s time to die.”

“What the hell?” Tony shrieked and asked Hank, “I thought the drugs were working?”

Dr. McCoy rubbed his forehead, “They are.” Crossing his arms, he reclined in the office chair and took in the sight before him. He saw two men who he knew were scared to death, one the husband and the other the father of his patient. A doctor doesn’t just care for a patient, but the patient’s family as well. Keeping that philosophy in mind, he addressed Clint’s outburst, “She is not deciding that ‘it’s time to die’.”

Clint walked up to the desk and slapped his hands on the surface, “Bull shit! She decided last night. Then just now you allowed her to make the choice again.”

“What the hell?” Tony repeated.

Understanding the interpretation Clint attached to what had occurred in Kate’s room, the doctor defended, “I merely asked her to decide it she wants to keep fighting the radiation poisoning once this protocol stops working.” Putting his hand up to stop any attempt of Stark’s to interrupt Hank went on, “The new drug protocol is working, and I don’t see it stopping at any point soon. However, Kate is correct, they are not going to work forever. We will eventually exhaust all options, and she will die.” He stopped with that remark. Allowing the men to process the harsh truth he had just informed them of. When there wasn’t any follow up comment, Hank continued, “What I am about to say may be perceived as insulting, but that is by no means my intention. You both are new to this, but everyone here would be accepting and understanding of Kate deciding to halt life prolonging assistance.”

“Excuse me!” Tony shouted, not enjoying one moment of being ignored. “What…the…hell are you two talking about? Kate wants to die?”

Hank really did hate that phrase ‘wants to die’. That was the last thing Kate wanted, but she was realistic. “Last night she almost did. Perhaps not because she wanted to, but she did accept it. Again, no offense to you gentleman, but you have not been here to witness the years of her suffering and fighting. The body and mind can only take so much.”

Finally sitting down in the chair across from the doctor Clint asked in a defeated voice, “So last night she just gave up?”

“There is a difference, especially in Kate’s mind I believe, between ‘giving up’ and ‘accepting reality’.” Hank was trying to remain calm to keep the Beast at bay. Kate was special to him. She was a fighter, she was his friend. This discussion hurt him the same, if not more than the family members sitting in front of him. It hurt because he had been right there by her side every step of the way on the battlefield against her war with this sickness. The ‘she wants to die’ and ‘she is giving up’ comments were the furthest things from the truth. They would know that if they had been here, but it wasn’t their fault. It didn’t matter, none of their hurt mattered, it was Kate’s fight, and she should be the person who decides when and where her last stand takes place. “I suspect what happened yesterday was her experiencing something originally interpreted as just extreme fatigue. She didn’t want to alert anyone and assumed she would be fine, so Kate altered her test results as to not to raise any panic in the masses. It wasn’t done with any malice, she wasn’t trying to hurt or deceive anyone.”

“Going have to disagree with you on that one.” Tony contended, “She picked fights with both Clint and I to get us out of here, so she wouldn’t have any witnesses.”

Folding his hands Hank returned, “Why do you think she did that?”

“So we would take the kids and leave.” Clint answered, “Tony and I already discussed this.”

“Like she said, she made choices. She thought she was beyond any possibility of life saving measures.” Looking to Tony, “You just finished remodeling their living quarters at the compound. A safe place for the family to finally be together and happy. What would happen if the first morning, the kids find their mother dead in her bed?”

Clint pointed out, “Technically, I would have been the one to find her.”

“You probably would have been Clint.” Hank agreed. “What would that have done to you?”

“Finding my wife dead next to me after a decade separated and only one night back together with all of us?” Clint questioned wondering when Dr. McCoy became a therapist, then the point the blue man was dancing around finally came face-to-face with him, “It would have destroyed me.”

“The only parent those children would have, would be a broken man.” Tony commented as he realized Kate’s motives for her actions.

“She thought she couldn’t do anything for herself, so she tried to protect her family, by distancing herself from them.” Hank hypothesized about his patient and friend, “She didn’t just decide that yesterday was a good day to die. She knew the threat to her family was gone, if she were to die, then everyone was safe. She could die in peace.”

“It still doesn’t excuse the deceit,” Clint started, what happened, happened, now they needed a plan. “but she did what she did, and now we have to move on. What do we do if she says she doesn’t want another drug when this one fails?”

Hank knew this was a hard concept to accept, but he needed to get them to understand that it was Kate’s choice. “We have a discussion with her and respect her wishes.”

“Can’t we have her labeled unable to make her own medical decisions or something?” Tony queried out loud while he panicked internally over the thought that Kate could just stop her treatment, “There has to be something we can do here.”

“There is no reason for that. She is fully able to make her own decisions.” Hank didn’t want to go into the fact that Kate had signed an advance directive order and had put the Professor in charge of making any medical decision on her behalf if she was unable to. If and when that information needed to be shared, he would, but not a moment before. Reflecting on the recent events and Hank’s own behavior in Kate’s room, he confessed, “It was unfair of me to put that choice on her immediately following waking up. I’m afraid I let my own frustration at the situation cloud my professional judgment. It should not be a decision made in haste. I want her to think about it,” Looking to Clint, “talk with you. I will want her back in my office within the next two days for follow up, we can broach the topic then if need be.”

Tony couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “Wait a minute, you are actually letting her leave?”

“That depends, are you able to arrange blood work every six hours and have it sent here?” Hank asked.

“Of course.” There was an entire medical department at the compound. Arranging for someone to go to Kate every six hours and take some blood wouldn’t be a problem for Tony. He could have FRIDAY set it up as soon as he left the office.

Checking his watch, Hank informed the men, “I am going to run labs once more, but I doubt they will show anything that will require her to remain here.”

“So, she is fine.” Clint asked.

“Fine is a tricky concept.” Hank explained, Kate would never be ‘fine’, and that was something Clint and Tony would have to get used to. “She is as well as can be expected given her condition.”

“Are there any restrictions?” Clint questioned as he mentally prepared for Hank to start rattling off things Kate could and could not do. “Anything I need to do?”

“Avoid stressful situations, keep an eye on her.” Hank said in a casual manner, he had no reservations of Kate going with them. They were as invested now as much as anyone at the school. They would ensure Kate followed instructions. “Any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me.”

“So, no restrictions?” Clint repeated stressing the word ‘restrictions’.

It did take a second, but finally Hank got what Clint was hinting at. He tried to be as vague with the answer as Clint had been with his question, “I believe I understand what you are asking, and that can actually be a stress relief, so it’s fine.”

Tony looked between the two men, again, he was out of the loop. Then Clint’s intention dawned on him, “Did you seriously just ask if you could…? Right in front of me? With my daughter?” Then addressed Hank, “And you told him he could?”

“Well then,” Hank said attempting to hurry the conversation along, moving away from the awkward topic, “if no one has any other questions, I believe you should be the bearer of good news and tell Kate she is released, pending the test results.” Both Tony and Clint took that as their cue to leave, but before they could exit the office, Hank called out, “I really don’t do the whole ‘bad guy’ thing very well. I need her to come to me. So, if you don’t mind.”

Clint nodded to the doctor, accepting the responsibility of being the one to draw the line for Kate. “No worries, I’ll handle the threats. She will not be doing this again.”

Smiling, Hank responded, “Thank you.”

~~~

“All and all, I think we dodged a bullet here.” Tony observed closing the office door behind him. “Do you want me to call Pepper and have her tell the kids that we are on our way back?”

“How about we wait until after the final tests?” Clint answered trying to force himself not to think that far in advance. There had been too many setbacks for him to emotionally invest in anything past the ‘here and now’. Yesterday he did that, and the results weren’t great. Steve was correct, there wasn’t an effortless way to learn a life lesson, you had to experience it to get retention. “Can you arrange for the blood tests? I am going to let Kate know that she is being discharged, and make sure that it is the compound she wants to go back to.” Tony opened his mouth to dispute Clint’s last comment, but was cut off, “I know why she stayed back yesterday, that reason is very clear, believe me. I just want to get confirmation, especially before we tell anyone that she is coming back with us. I don’t think my kids could handle one more curve ball thrown at them.”

Tony understood that. He guessed that is what made Clint a good dad, he was always thinking about his children.  Clasping his hands together he agreed, “Sounds like a plan, I am going to have FRIDAY put the blood draws on the medical staff’s agenda. Did you want me to ask Storm to pack up some of Kate’s stuff? You know clothes, and lady things?”

“That would make us getting out of here a hell of a lot quicker.” That was all Clint wanted to do now, get home to his family, his whole family, “She must come back in a few days anyway, so just enough to get her through until then.” Tony nodded and left to go about his assigned tasks, thankful to have something to do.

~~~

Entering Kate’s room, Clint only heard the last part of Professor Xavier’s comment to Kate, “I think it is the best solution for everyone involved, but I won’t force you to do it Katherine. I only ask that you think about it and we meet and discuss it in further detail once you have come to a decision.”

Kate was staring at her hands when she responded, “Thank you Professor, I will think about it.” She then looked up and saw Clint at the door, “So, what have you all decided for me?”

“Pending one more blood test, you’re sprung.” Clint informed, nodding his greeting to the Professor. “Now we just have to talk about where you want to go.”

Xavier smiled at Clint’s last comment and took that as an indication to leave the couple to converse matters in private. “Katherine, enjoy your leave, and I will be in touch about our discussion.” With a final warm glance to Clint, the Professor left the room.

Clint did catch the minor hint that Xavier threw at him, he had told Kate to enjoy her leave. She had put in for it, so she could spend time with her newly reunited family. Her still taking the leave meant to Clint, that she was planning on going through with the original plan. “What was that all about?” Clint asked while he watched Kate remove the numerous monitoring devices that were attached to her. He didn’t do anything about it until she started to mess with the I.V., “How about we let the nurses do that one?”

Kate had never liked being told what to do but did as Clint requested and removed her hand from the tube. After everything she had done, relinquishing a bit of control in this situation to her husband may remedy some of the pain she caused. “When are they coming to do the test?”

“Hank put in the order. They will get to it.” Clint said reclaiming the chair next to her. “You feel like answering my question?” The confusion on her faced that he received as an answer told him that she had been too preoccupied disconnecting herself from the machinery to hear him. “I walked in on the end of an apparently very interesting conversation between you two. Care to enlighten me on what that was about? Because if it is about what I think it is, you and I are going to need to have a long talk before any final decision is made.”

“Nothing urgent if that is what you are worried about.” Kate knew what Clint thought she and the Professor were talking about. Clint was correct, they would need to discuss the protocol and how to proceed from this moment on, and neither of them were in the frame of mind to give it the proper attention the subject needed. “He just proposed an idea that could make whatever time I have left in this world worthwhile and make a difference for a lot of people’s lives that I care about.”

“Like your family wasn’t ‘worthwhile’ enough?” Clint alleged, offended on behalf of the children and himself.

“Please don’t start Clint.” Kate pleaded looking up to the ceiling. “I told you, I made this choice to protect everyone, shield them from all this.”

Clint stood up and gestured for Kate to move over as he kicked off his shoes. His back was killing him, and since she only had an I.V. in, he didn’t have to worry about various cords and tubes getting tangled up. Kate sat up and scooted over, allowing Clint to climb in and lay down. He extended one arm behind her as she leaned back into the pillows and pulled the comforter over both of them. With an arm behind her, Clint was able to pull her into him. He was really holding her. It had been the only thing he had wanted, after ensuring the safety of his children of course, since the wipe was reversed. Hell, if he was completely honest with himself, this was all he had wanted since the Sandbox mission went ‘live’ all those years ago.

Going back to what she had just said, Clint needed to understand her so called ‘choice’, “How was that going to work Kate? This morning someone was going to find your body and call me? How was that shielding anyone?”

Leaning into him so that her head was on his chest, Kate took a minute to listen to Clint’s heartbeat. She had always found solace in the sound, and this time proved no different. “It was shielding you from being the one to find me, or God forbid one of the kids. They would never recover, mainly Charlie.” Propping herself up so she could meet his eyes, “What would you have done in my place?”

Without a moment’s delay, Clint countered, “What would you have done in mine?”

All Kate could do to that very valid point was to nod her head, silently conceding. Once again, she rested onto the archer’s chest. “How are the kids?”

Closing his eyes, enjoying the quiet moment of peace, Clint answered, “No idea. Tony has been the one checking up on them. I am assuming since he hasn’t said anything, everything is fine.”

Patting his chest, Kate commented, “Great parenting there Barton.”

Opening just one eye, he came back with, “Do you really want to go there?”

“Probably not the best idea.”

“Wise choice.” Clint said reclosing the eye and smiling at the small victory he had just won.

The cozy moment was interrupted when a nurse knocked on the door and walked in without waiting for an answer. If the woman found anything interesting about finding the couple in bed together, she kept it to herself. Withdrawing the necessary blood sample, she left just as silently as she had entered. Clint observed that with the blood work done, it would be anytime now that Kate would be officially discharged, if everything came back fine. Now he just needed her to tell him what her discharge plans were. He was assuming that she was coming back with him, but he also did that yesterday, and look where that got them. “Are we just moving on past everything that happened and was said between us yesterday? Because I am absolutely alright with that, I just need to know.”

In a laid back and content tone, Kate responded, “Oh no, I am still very pissed about that, but I’m sure I’ll get over it.”

The words she said triggered a memory for him, “Since you mentioned ‘getting over it’, it has been suggested, very strongly, that I should see someone.”

“See someone? Like a shrink?” Kate asked finding the concept amusing, as would anyone who knew Clint.

Squeezing her shoulder in affirmation, he went on, “How do you feel about that?”

Shrugging, Kate answered, “Depends, don’t get me wrong, you have needed mental health intervention since birth, and S.H.I.E.L.D. has tried to force you into it millions of times over the years. Clint, you never take it seriously. You stonewall the therapist for a couple of sessions, then fake a few tears and tell them that your daddy was mean to you in some pitiful voice. They clear you for active duty and think they are a god because they were able to get the infamous Clint Barton to make a break through. Therapy has always been a running joke to you. Why now?”

There was nothing in what Kate just said that wasn’t true. Clint had taught her that trick when she had to do a psych evaluation once after a mission had gone horribly wrong. It always had worked. However, this time was different. Clint knew that for him to be the husband and father his family needed and deserved, he had to do this and take it seriously. “It has been brought to my attention that I may not be handling the after effects of the Sandbox mission and wipe reversal in the healthiest way.”

Kate had to think about that. Wasn’t she the one who told him that he was still stuck mentally in Africa? “So, when I say it, you just say you need time to process everything. Someone else says the same thing and you lift the self-imposed ban on counseling?” 

“Well,” Clint started, seeing where Kate was coming from, “Sam said it, and he has experience with this type of thing. Even Logan had some constructive input to contribute on the subject.”

Now that got her undivided attention. Looking up at Clint, Kate suspiciously inquired, “You and Logan had a civil conversation? Regarding mental health? Are you sure I didn’t die last night?”

Seeing the humor in Kate’s take on the conversation with Sam and Logan, Clint laughed and disclosed how he left things with the Wolverine. “No, it’s real. In fact, I took you up on your suggestion. I thanked him and shook his hand, right in front of Charlie.”

Doubtful of Clint’s statement she asked with one heightened eyebrow, “Really?”

Clint still had his eyes closed, he was somewhat enjoying the conversation but really just wanted to take a quick nap while holding his wife until it was time to leave. “There were witnesses if you don’t believe me.”

In contrast to Clint, Kate was fully rested after a night of heavy sedation and a new medication that had caused her to feel better then she had in years. “So, you are good with Logan now?”

Opening his eyes, he found that she was watching him. Clint locked in on her gaze. “I am beyond appreciative to Logan for taking care of you and Charlotte when I was unable to.”

“Speaking of Charlotte, how did last night go?”

“I was only there for a bit before we came back.” Clint informed, speaking about Tony and himself returning to the school once they figured out what Kate was up to. “But she was excited about her new room. Wait until you see it Kate. We are going to have to be careful not to let Pepper and Tony spoil the kids. I know Charlie is used to being overindulged but Lila, Cooper and Nate aren’t used to that stuff. I don’t want them getting used to ‘Grandpapa and Peppy’ fulfilling their every wish.”

“Overindulged? What do you mean by that?” Kate asked in shock and offense of the label placed onto her daughter by the child’s own father.

Taken aback by Kate’s reaction, Clint challenged, “You know what I mean. The girl doesn’t take ‘no’ as an answer, must have her way and is as stubborn as hell. Charlie should know when an adult tells her something, she does it, no questions asked.”

“It doesn’t work that way. You have to explain yourself to her.” Kate said calmly thinking that would solve the child rearing dilemma and they could move on.

Laughing at the lunacy of Kate’s parenting advice Clint told her, “I’m not in the habit of explaining my reasons to my children, they should just accept it because I said so.”

“Well, start.” Kate said sitting up and looking down to Clint, “You must let her question your reasoning, let her challenge you. It’s the only way we will know, the only way we will be able to gauge how we are doing raising her right. Did you think that the Professor and I were just spoiling her?”

Tilting his head in admittance Clint answered, “I did get that impression.”

“We weren’t.” Kate stressed, “We are preparing for the day when she had to make a decision and there isn’t anyone there to ask for counsel. If she is questioning you, it could be one of two reasons. The first, she just doesn’t want to accept your decision.”

“I guessing that is the majority of the time?” The child’s father assumed based on his brief time with the child in question.

Ignoring the comment, because that wasn’t the point she was trying to make, Kate pushed on, “The second, and this is the essential one, is because she doesn’t understand and wants to. Clint, her abilities and the consequences to the world are dependent on her logic, comprehension and reasoning abilities. We have to give her that comprehension and logic. ‘Because I said so’ may work for a few more years, if that long. It will work because she will come to love you with her heart and soul and trust you to lead her in the right direction. However, what happens when she trusts and loves the wrong person and they ask her to do something atrocious because they ‘said so’? It’s setting our daughter and the world up for failure.”

Clint’s first impression of Charlotte was that she was being raised as an adult due to the trauma she experienced at birth. Kate’s revelation informed him that Charlie’s torture was only part of the reason for the method she was being brought up in. She was being raised by people who knew that she could either become a weapon or savior for the world, depending on who was guiding her. The difference pended on how Charlotte interpreted the world and how she arrived at that interpretation. There was so much he didn’t know about his own child. Kate could have possibly died last night rendering him forever clueless in how to handle Charlie. Yes, the X-Men probably would have enlightened him at some point, and Clint would have figured some of the stuff on his own. But it was nothing compared to what insight her mother could give him. At that moment, Clint was filled with rage of the selfish choice, despite the reasons behind it, Kate almost went through with.

Clint was about to make good on his promise to Hank of threats directed at Kate if she ever thought about doing something like this again, but Tony chose that moment to reenter his only child’s life. The look on Tony’s face when he walked in and found Clint in Kate’s bed was precious. It almost made Clint completely forget his earlier anger. “Jesus Christ Barton, the doctor gives you the ‘go ahead’ and you literally jump into her bed five minutes later?”

Kate asked while she noticed Tony was holding the overnight bag that she had been packing the day before, “What?”

“Please don’t ask. It will only encourage him in his ranting.” Clint begged of her then suggested to Tony, “How about you knock on a door before barging in on a couple in a room that has a bed in it?”

Filling in the gaps of the conversation she had missed between Tony, Clint, and apparently Hank, Kate changed the subject, “Is that my bag?”

Remembering that he had it, Tony moved towards her and sat it down at the foot of the bed, “Yeah, Storm packed it. You might want to go through it and make sure you have everything you need.”

“You need to come back in a few days to see Hank, so if there is anything you later realize you forgot, we can get it then.” Clint followed up with, holding his breath for Kate to say that she was still going to stay at the school, having never officially confirmed that she was going back to the compound.

Kate pulled the bag towards her and unzipped it. She moved a few things around and zipped it back up. “It’s all here, I’m good.”

“Great. Hank is sending in a nurse to take out your I.V., your results were fine. Once that is done, we can go. I don’t know if Clint told you yet but part of the conditions for your early release is that you must have blood drawn every six hours. The medical department at the compound already has McCoy’s orders and will be drawing the blood and sending it back here.” Tony moved closer to his daughter and gave his best attempt of a ‘strict father face’, “If Hank says anything, we are to bring you immediately back, do you understand Katherine Antonia?”

If Clint didn’t bust out laughing when Tony walked in, the man’s imitation of an authoritarian type of father along with the use of Kate’s new full name did. Kate was trying to conceal her laughter as well, and somehow was able to contain it as she answered him in a soldier-like manner, “Sir, yes sir.” Everyone was hushed by the reemergence of the nurse from earlier to remove the I.V., freeing Kate.

Seeing that his threat was being mocked, by both of the bed’s occupants, Tony abandoned the approach and took the one Clint was earlier tasked with. “Do you understand Kate? This is not happening again. You so much as have a caffeine withdraw headache, you are back here.”

Kate stared at her father while the nurse messed with the tube connected to her arm, trying to figure him out. Clint wasn’t saying anything, which could only mean to her that he agreed with the line Tony was drawing here. Concluding that yielding to the terms were the only way she was going to get out of the infirmary, she just nodded her consent. “Did you really change my name?”

“That is your concern right now?” Clint asked his wife, seeing so much more that she should be concerned about.

Kate responded very directly, “Damn right it is.”

“Yes, I did.” Tony confirmed, seeming to be pleased with his actions, “Your new driver’s license and social security card are being mailed to the compound. Out of respect to Clint here, I hyphened your last name to Stark-Barton.”

“That was mighty Christian of you there Tony.” Clint said sarcastically as he was watching the I.V. being removed. Kate was up and out of the bed as soon as the nurse left, grabbing up her bag and going to the attached bathroom to change.

Tony watched in amusement of Kate’s sudden movement. It appeared she was set about leaving as soon as possible. Looking to Clint, he saw the men’s expression mirrored his own, “Not at all, I also took the liberty and changed Charlie’s to the hyphenated version as well. “

Reaching down to retrieve his shoes, Clint looked up suddenly at that, “Why did you hyphen hers?

“Why not?” Tony questioned shrugging.

“Because she’s not your daughter.” Clint explained as he laced up his shoes, “Just leave it as Barton please.”

“Hello? Anyone remember me?” Kate asked coming back into the room after setting the world record for fastest wardrobe change. She was wearing a light green sweater and dark jeans. “Anyone want to ask me about name changes to my daughter and myself?”

Tony bluntly expressed his feelings on that notion, “No, honestly not really.”

Clint moved towards Kate to take her bag from her. He could see that Kate was getting riled up again, and Hank had told him to keep her somewhat stress-free. Shooting a look to Tony to stop, the Ironman understood the signal and just smiled. Hanging the bag over his shoulder, he wrapped his free arm around her waist, “Let it go Kate. He is just having a go at you.” Guiding her out of the room, Clint couldn’t help but permit the excitement and happiness to enter his voice of finally ending the decade long separation and having his entire family together, “Let’s get out of here.”

 

 

 

 


	38. Chapter Thirty-Seven ~ There is Still a World to Save

 

Chapter Thirty-Seven

There is Still a World to Save

Kate heard the commotion before the elevator even opened to the floor that the family’s living quarters were on. Having dealt with Charlie’s tantrums for ten years, Kate was easily enough able to identify the sounds of her daughter not getting her way, thereby causing the life of whoever was watching her to be a living hell.

Clint and Tony heard the screaming as well and passed concerned glances to one another. Both deciding if was best to stay quiet for the time being. Once they stepped off the elevator, Clint led Kate to the double door entrance of the place they would be temporarily calling ‘home’. “Whatever she is doing in there, just remember – stay calm.”

The concern was touching but would become annoying soon enough, it was currently touching though.  “Of course. It’s just Charlie being unhappy. She’ll be fine.” Kate offered with a smile. Pleased with her response, Clint opened the door, and stepped aside to allow Kate and Tony to enter. The scene that greeted the group may have been surprising to Tony and Clint, but Kate had been an active participant in similar scenarios numerous times in the past. She even had a name for it, ‘any day that ends in y’.

Pepper was standing on the first floor beside the staircase calling up to the second floor. Charlie was hunched over the railing upstairs yelling down her responses to the commands she was being given. Cooper could be seen standing in the doorframe of the entrance to his bedroom, leaning against the wood.

Pepper made the exhausting request, “Charlie, please just come down here and we can talk about it.” It was clear from the tone that she had been doing this for a while before they walked in. Kate felt bad about that. She didn’t know Pepper, the woman had stepped up without complaint to ensure her children were cared for and supervised. Now the woman’s good deeds were being rewarded by a ten-year-old screaming at her.

“No, I don’t want to talk to you.” Charlie screeched back in a tone that was so high pitch Clint thought the windows would shatter. The child then started to shake the railing to emphasize her desires, “I want to go back to my house now!”

Pepper looked down then back up at Charlie, the loss of what to do clear in her facial expression, “Honey, your parents want you here.”

Clint moved past where Tony and Kate were standing to make his presence known to the party. Charlie was scared, this was how she was choosing to show it. She had been left alone with people she didn’t know that well in a brand-new environment. Of course, she woke up frightened. Clint had promised to protect her and provide a safe and loving home to her, the first day she wakes up in her new room, neither parent is there. Tony was also moving towards Pepper, obviously thinking about the best way to help his fiancé with his angry granddaughter. Kate stood back and watched how these people were going to handle the situation. Then Charlie crossed the line, “No. You’re a liar, I want to go back!”

“Charlotte Henrietta Carbonell!” Kate screamed so loud that Tony, Pepper and Clint were taken by shock at the commanding tone only mothers have.

“Stark-Barton.” Tony corrected which only got him an irritated look from the girl’s mother in reply.

Having turned suddenly at Kate matching Charlie’s volume and pitch, Clint was now staring at his wife, “Way to stay calm there Kate.”

“Mom!” Charlie yelled in both surprise and relief.

“Get down here!” Kate demanded as she pointed to the girl then to the spot on the floor right in front of her. Immediately Charlie pulled herself upright by using the rails she was previously shaking lose and started her way to her mother. “Did you leave your brain at the school? Apologize to Ms. Potts right now for being disrespectful and rude.”

Embarrassed at the situation she was found in, Pepper rationalized, “Its fine, I understand.”

“Well, I don’t.” Clint opposed, placing himself between Kate and Charlie, deciding to take charge of what was happening. Charlie stopped right before she ran into Clint and attempted to go around him. The experienced father grabbed his daughter’s hand and pulled Charlie away from her mother.

“Hey!” Charlie protested at the action, “I want my mom.”

“And I want you to do as your mom said and apologize.” Clint responded looking down at her with a blank expression.

Charlie met his eyes with her own and stood her ground, “Not going to happen.”

“Excuse me?” Clint couldn’t keep the disbelief out of his voice at the open defiance.

“I said, I am not going to say ‘sorry’, because I am not.” Charlie challenged the man who was inserting himself into her and her mother’s life without being asked to.

Cooper was slowly making his way down the stairs to join the family, watching the scene unfold. “Charlie thought mom was sick, and Pepper was covering it up.” He informed his parents, letting them know what they had walked in on. “Pepper told her you were in meetings all day and couldn’t call.”

_Damn_ , Clint thought. Of course, Charlie would think something was being covered up. If Clint and Tony had figured out that Kate was sick and hiding it, then surely Charlie had arrived at the same conclusion. She had more exposure to Kate’s illness, and had probably dealt with her mother being in the infirmary more than once. His daughter feared not only the new living arrangements, but also that she may never see her mother again. Then to solidify that fear, the person she had been placed in the care of had lied to her. “Is that why you called Pepper a liar?”

Charlie nodded, then enlightened everyone to the actions that clued her in on the deceit. “Mom doesn’t call me when she’s sick in the infirmary.”

Pepper, feeling awful that whatever trust she had gain with the child was destroyed, simply stated, “I didn’t know that.”

Clint reassured her, “None of us did.” He shot Kate a look of annoyance over not passing along that critical information. Kate just rose and lowered her shoulders in indifference, how was she supposed to tell them that, she had been unconscious when they crafted their lie.

It was Cooper’s turn now to be the one to call out the adults on the ruse, “So, she was sick.” He felt hurt, he had been trying to calm Charlie down since he had returned from his first therapy session. Cooper had attempted to convince his sister that Pepper wouldn’t lie to them about their mother and that eventually their parents would either show up or call. Now he was to Charlie just as much of a liar to her as Pepper, and he didn’t appreciate it. It was the rule in their family that no one lies, with the obvious exception of Laura recently. His father had always said that no matter how bad the truth was, it was always better than the lie.

Clint could almost hear his son’s internal monologue. He then locked eyes with Kate, her expression told him that they were on the same page with how to handle this. His guess was confirmed by Kate’s confession, “Yeah guys, I was.” She said walking over to the couch to sit down gesturing for her children to join her.

 “I knew it. Your eyes were cloudy.” Charlie exclaimed walking over to the sitting area. She sat down next to her mother and stared daggers at Pepper, “And you lied.”

Pepper was struggling to find something to say in response to that, but Clint was more concerned about the observation his child made, “What are you talking about? Her eyes were cloudy?”

“Corneal haze.” Kate elaborated, “it’s one of the first symptoms of the protocol not working.”

Tony shot a glance to Clint; the kid saw there was a problem and no one else did?  Hank obviously knew there was something up, but Charlie had seen it on the jet. The X-Men must have known as well, but nobody did anything? The first symptom appeared hours before Kate ever saw Hank, hours that they could have done something. It would have been nice if that information was distributed to everyone. “There’s a warning sign?” Tony asked, then directed to his granddaughter, “and you saw it?”

Clint was also taken aback by the information. Carefully maneuvering around the topic, he tried to get his point across without having Charlie think she had done something wrong. “Charlie why didn’t you tell anyone?”

Charlie was oblivious to the bus that she had just thrown her mother under and proceeded to back it up to ensure the job was done properly. “Mom said she was fine, and she would go to Dr. McCoy when we got back to the school. She promised Scott and Storm that she would.”

“And I did.” Kate explained to her daughter. “It’s all fine now.”

There were a few things Clint would have liked to have said in reply to Kate’s simplified interpretation of ‘it’s all fine now’. But he didn’t, his kids were present and didn’t feel like traumatizing them further by witnessing their father and grandfather yelling at their mother just after she was released from the hospital. For the life of him he could not remember anyone speaking about Kate’s sickness on the flight. He was there and couldn’t place the group speaking together. It would have been Kate, Scott, Storm and Charlie, a large group having a discussion in a tight space. They must have seized a moment to talk when Clint was distracted with the other three kids. That upset him more than anything else. It was an obvious move to guarantee he didn’t know what was going on with Kate. Tony said Kate started ‘playing her game’ on the jet, but the Professor was there for the entire flight. Perhaps Xavier wasn’t paying attention and just taking her word for it, either that or Kate wasn’t lying at that time. Clint had already figured out how Kate messed with her test results. There were a few minutes while they were in the examination room that Kate excused herself for, at first Clint thought it was to use the restroom, but the timing of her return and the ‘system glitch’ were too coincidental when he looked back on the moment. How much did the X-Men know before he and Tony arrived at the school last night?

Cooper had been told about his mother’s medical condition, but he didn’t understand it. Upon reflection of Charlie’s earlier reaction before their parents’ arrival, he got the impression that it was more serious than he was originally told. “But you still got sick?”

“HYDRA made her sick right before I was born. She’s always sick, but Dr. McCoy fixes it.”

Clint knew that Charlie had more experience with this then anyone in the room combined, and tremendous faith in the healing abilities of the doctor. He didn’t want to lie to her, tell her that Dr. McCoy will always fix it. At the same time, she was too young to understand the full scope of her mother’s prognosis. They would need to talk to Cooper more in depth later since it was apparent their son knew something more was going on but was holding his tongue in front of his sister. Moving over to where his family had assembled on the sofa, Clint sat down in the recliner opposite them, so he could see their faces. Meeting Charlie’s eyes he described what had happened overnight, “Dr. McCoy did fix it, with the help of your Grandpapa.” Clint told her in an attempt of giving the child someone other than the X-Men to have faith in. “Charlie, I’m sorry that you weren’t told. It must have been very scary for you.” Breaking off eye contact to look at Cooper, Clint included, “For you both.” Then returned his attention to Charlie, “It was my first time seeing your mom sick and it was very scary for me too. I didn’t know what to do.  She was sleeping, so she couldn’t tell me. All I was able to do was sit by her bed and wait for her to wake up, and when she did, I brought her back to you. It’s not Pepper’s fault either, she was just trying to take care of you in the best way she thought. Everyone is learning right now how this family worked separately for so long, so we can make it work together from here on out. It is going to take some time for us all to get to know and understand one another.” Addressing both children, “Can you bear with us while we learn?”

“Yeah, we can do that.” Cooper agreed, answering for his sister as well, “Dr. Morgan says parents are just people too. They can make mistakes and aren’t perfect.”

“Who the hell is Dr. Morgan and why are they telling you that?” Kate asked horrified. It wasn’t as if whoever this person was wasn’t telling the truth, she just didn’t like the idea of her children being in on that secret.

Clint did know who the person in question was and disregarded Kate’s question to ask one of his own to Pepper, “Is that where Lila is now?”

“Yes, should only be for about ten more minutes, Natasha and Sam will bring her back here.” Pepper told the group, “Then she would like to meet to discuss which course of actions to take. I was originally going to take the meeting, but since you are both back, it would be better for you to attend.”

“She can’t tell you anything I said.” Cooper stressed to his father. “Even Aunt Nat and Sam can’t, they promised.”

Clint nodded his head, “And I wouldn’t ask her to. I want you to feel comfortable talking to Dr. Morgan about anything and everything. She is just going to explain to me how much she wants to see you and how I can help you and your sister at home to recover from what happened.” Clint had asked Sam to sit in on the first session to gauge if the therapist was the right fit for the kids, and Natasha went to give them a familiar face and to help them feel at ease.

Not fully understanding what they were talking about, Charlie questioned, “Do I have to go too?”

“Would you like to?” Clint responded, looking to Kate for the right direction to go with the subject. If he had to pick only one child to see a therapist, it would be Charlie. Logan had said that Kate was told by the Professor to see someone, so mental health was a priority at the school. With that population, how could it not be? However, no one had mentioned anything about Charlie seeing anyone.

Shaking her head at the invitation, Charlie told her father, “Nope. Logan said I don’t need it.  He told mom, I will ‘probably just work my way through all my issues by acting out and dating the wrong people, just like my mom did’.” Then added as an afterthought, “Or adopt fifty cats.”

Kate quickly put her head down to hide her reaction. She didn’t need to scan the room to know all eyes were on her with Charlie’s statement, “In my defense as well as Logan’s, I did have a conversation with him about it years ago, after my own therapist suggested it. It was when Charlie’s abilities were becoming more apparent and causing problems. The Professor disagreed, saying that if he saw the need, he would arrange it.” Looking up and over to Charlie she said, “I didn’t know you were eavesdropping.”

Joining in on the conversation, Tony observed, “And just think Clint, when he said that he had no idea about you.” Pausing, the absentee father added, “Makes one wonder what you were up to this last decade Katherine Antonia.”

Deciding to change the subject, because she had no intentions of explaining her past relationships to her husband and father in front of their children, she did a head count. Kate brought attention to the fact that she was able to locate three of the four children, “Where is Nate?”

“Upstairs playing.” Pepper quickly responded.

“If you guys have this,” Tony started, “I think I will take Pepper and leave you all to it. It’s been a long night and day for everyone.”

Kate understood, Pepper was probably just as exhausted as the guys were from watching four kids all night and day, one of which was Charlie. “Thank you for everything Pepper.”

“Anytime.” Pepper said as she remembered the task she had given Clint last night, perhaps with Kate now here, they could make some progress on getting the kids into school before Monday. “Also, please investigate the schools. The information is in Kate’s office.”

That was news to her, “I have an office?”

“Yes, right over there.” Clint informed pointing to the shut door off the kitchen by the staircase. Watching Pepper and Tony leave the apartment, he clarified on the request, “Need you to pick out a school for Lila and Cooper.”

“Yeah, we need to talk about that.” The way Kate said that gave Clint the feeling there was more to the proposed discussion then just educational needs.

“I know, it is going to be a carpool nightmare,” He reasoned, thinking he was beating her to the punch, “but we will figure it out. If I have to get a minivan and play ‘taxi dad’ all day, I will.”

The picture that painted itself in Kate’s mind was amusing, but not what she was trying to get to. “It probably will come to that. My schedule may not allow that flexibility.”

“I know, you will be at the school. What is that schedule, like nine o’clock to four? Clearly that is going to overlap with Lila and Cooper’s school times, and whatever we do with Nate. So, I will need to step up. I get it Kate, I’m in.”

“I mean we need to talk about my schedule.” Kate pushed, “Professor Xavier has recommended a different position and location.”

“Is this what I walked in on?” Clint thought the conversation he interrupted was regarding Kate’s sickness, and that was a conversation he wanted to have with her. However, not in front of Cooper or Charlie. “Can we perhaps talk about it later.” He asked hoping Kate would pick up on the hint.

“It’s not about that.” Kate said trying to put Clint at ease, “However, we do need to talk about that. We just need to figure some stuff out before we set down any roots in one particular location.”

“Ok,” Clint answered in an uncertain manner. The location wasn’t really something he thought they had a lot of choice in. The Xavier school was where Charlie needed to be enrolled, and he had also promised Wanda that he would make room for her wherever they ended up.  He had a laundry list of things that needed to be done and not a lot of time to do it in. Tomorrow would be a lot easier hopefully. “Let me go check in with Dr. Morgan while you unpack and get the grand tour by the devil spawns. When I get back, we will find some time to talk about it. I promise.”

“Thank you.” Extending her hands behind the back of each child that were seated on each side of her, “Come on guys, let’s get Nate and you can show me around.”

~~~

“Dad, you’re back!” Lila exclaimed running out of Tony’s office into the open arms of her father. Clint picked her up and accepted the hug she offered.

“How did it go?” He asked Sam and Natasha.

Sam smiled at Lila, then answered Clint’s question. “It will be a long road to travel, but we at least have started the trip.” Reaching over and rubbing Lila’s back, he asked for endorsement of his account from the little patient, “Right short stuff?”

“Right.” She agreed

It seemed, much to Clint’s relief, that Lila liked Sam because her whole face lit up when the Falcon spoke to her. Putting her back down, Clint questioned how the therapist connected. “Did you like the doctor?”

“She’s nice.” The child stated almost automatically, then added, “Asked a lot of questions.”

All three adults laughed at that observation. Her father then educated her to the doctor’s actions, “That’s kinda her job.”

“Aunt Nat said she won’t be at my next appointment.”

Natasha confirmed, “That’s right. You’re a big girl and can talk to Dr. Morgan by yourself. Sam and I have to go help Captain America elsewhere.”

“Speaking of her next appointment, Dr. Morgan wants to speak to you about that.” Sam passed along.

“Great, I’ll be right in.” Clint answered then decided that he needed to rip the band aid off to make Lila aware of Kate’s presence in the apartment. “Lila, why don’t you go back upstairs and help Kate?”

“Kate is here?” Clint was unable to identify the emotion in Lila’s voice. He knew it was a question, but was she surprised, happy, upset, or something totally different?

His heart was beating so hard in anticipation of Lila’s reaction that Clint was positive that he was about to have a heart attack. The kid just completed her first counseling session because of her mother’s actions and death, now her step-mother had moved in. “Yes, she is, are you ok with that?”

“Is she staying?” Once again, the girl didn’t give away any clues of how she perceived Kate’s arrival.

“Yes.” Clint thought it would be best to keep his answer short to avoid Lila reading too much into it and asking for further details.

Lila let out a heavy breath, which Clint took to mean she wasn’t happy with her step-mother moving in, “Will she get Charlie to stop yelling?”

With the relief of Lila’s question not being anything against Kate, Clint smiled and told her, “Already done.”

“Then she can stay.” Lila said bluntly and marched past Clint to return to the family’s quarters, leaving the three remaining people left with their mouths hanging open.

Natasha waited until Lila was out of sight before inquiring after Clint’s older daughter, “How’s Charlie doing?”

“Was it really that bad?” He asked, unfortunately already knowing the answer, but wanted Natasha’s version of events.

Natasha slanted her head and offered up a knowing smile, “Put it this way, you know how people say, ‘you get your temper from your mom or from your dad’? “Clint nodded, not sure where this was going, “Well, Charlie got her temper from both of you, and it isn’t pretty.”

Clint was forced to accept Natasha’s point, Charlie was clearly a product of her stubborn and easy to anger parents. “Yeah, we walked in on the end of it. She knew something was up with Kate, and everyone was covering it.”

“She’s smart.” Sam contributed, “I doubt there will be a lot that you will be able to get past her. Charlie is going to be something when she gets older.” The man had once again meant his remarks of the girl to be a compliment to her father, but Clint took it to an entirely different place then what was intended.

“That is what worries me.” Crossing his arms, Clint reflected on the past, “Do you remember when we first encountered Wanda?”

Matching Clint’s gesture, Natasha answered, “Yes, she was with Ultron.” She had known Clint for a very long time. The reversal of the wipe had given her additional years of insight into the archer’s mind, Natasha had a feeling of where this was going.

Bobbing his head at the correct answer, he followed up with, “Do you recall why?”

“She was upset.” Sam remembered, then specified, “She and her brother were. Ultron had similar goals she believed to be right. Then she saw the light and helped the Avengers defeat him and his army of robots.”

“She did it because her parents died, and she blamed Tony.” Clint elaborated with a vacant expression.

Natasha became afraid of the rabbit hole Clint was about the jump head first into, “What is this about?”

“Kate is going to die.” Clint confessed, then swiftly furthered his explanation, “Not today, but one day. There isn’t a cure for her condition. What if Charlie blames others for her mother’s death and acts out?”

Full comprehension of what the events years ago had to do with the here and now dawned on Natasha, “Kate is the way she is because of HYDRA, if Charlie blames them, which I thought she already did, then she will join up with the X-Men when she is older.”

“It’s not the life I want for her. I thought we were in this fight, so the next generation didn’t have to be.” The last thing Clint needed right now was to worry about any of the children following in Kate’s or his footsteps into this life.

“Every generation says that, hasn’t worked yet.” Sam preached looking down as he shook his head, “Do you think she will do something like Wanda and Pietro did?”

“What if she blames S.H.I.E.L.D for the mission or the X-Men for not finding a cure, or me for not doing my job and protecting them?” The possibilities were endless. There were numerous paths Charlie could take as an adult. Clint thought back to his discussion with Kate about how and why Charlie was being raised the way she was. It was very clear that Clint wasn’t the only person fearful of a grown-up Charlotte Barton.

“Then you deal with it Clint, you save her.” Sam instructed as if it was the simplest thing on earth, “You be her father and tell her to knock that shit out.”

Natasha appreciated Sam’s directness, but knew Clint needed a plan of action, “So many people already love and care for Charlotte. That list is only going to grow as she gets to know all of us. If we lose Kate,” Natasha let her mask fall and uncharacteristically showed a hint of emotion at the possibility, but quickly overcame it to get to her point, “No one is going to let Charlie or you, go about that alone.”

“I have a list of potential therapists for you Clint. I will make sure to get that to you tonight. They all are Veterans who know a thing or two about the battlefield and the aftereffects of it. We can talk to you all day until we are blue in the face of how Charlie or any of the kids will be ok. However, it’s nothing until you believe it and therapy is the only way you are going to arrive at that conclusion for yourself.”

If there was one thing Natasha could and would never doubt, it was Clint’s commitment to his family. He would do whatever it took to ensure they were safe, healthy, and protected, even if that meant going against every instinct in his mind about psychological assistance. “Well, we are off then. Steve pushed back our meeting with Fury until six, so we could be here, and we need to get on the road.”

“You are heading out tonight as well?” Clint asked confused. He would have bet on ‘Tasha staying around for a while with the family.

Smirking, Natasha reminded her best friend and partner, “There is still a world to save Hawkeye.”

Clint pulled her into an embrace, “Thanks again.” She had risked so much for him, they all had. It was a debt he would never be able to pay back, even if he lived to be Steve’s age.

“You need me, you call, got it?” Natasha ordered as Clint released her, “Tell the kids and Kate ‘goodbye’ for me alright? I’m afraid if I go up and do it, I won’t get out of here until midnight.”

“You’re probably right,” Clint agreed as he extended his hand, “Sam, I can’t thank you enough for what you did.”

“You’re my friend, I got you.” Sam told Clint as he grabbed his hand and pulled him into a quick hug.”  I will call at the end of the week to make sure you called someone and have an appointment in the books.” Then Sam had a confused expression as he added, “Also Steve said something about you letting us stay at your old place in Brooklyn? Told me I needed to get some keys from you?”

“You’re letting them stay in Bed-Stuy?” Natasha inquired as she chuckled, having totally forgotten all about the old apartment building the Bartons owned.

“Letting them stay? Hell no.” Clint said pulling his head back in disbelief of the question he was asked, “I’m giving it to Steve.” Directing his instructions at Sam, “I think Tony had the locks changed. I will get the keys from him and send it over. He and Pepper turned in for the night, so is tomorrow alright?”

“We’re not going anywhere anytime soon. I’ll let Steve know.” He signaled to Natasha that it was time to get moving. Clint watched as they left, and as expected Natasha threw him a little wave before the pair turned the corner to exit the compound, hopefully not for the last time.

“Mr. Barton, I presume?” A voice called to him.

Turning back to Tony’s office, Clint saw the therapist that he had kept waiting. “Yes, I’m sorry. Here I come.”

~~~

Clint proceeded with caution once he arrived back at the entrance of his apartment. After what he walked in on last time, he was unsure how this would go. He was pleasantly surprised to find Kate in the kitchen with Charlie by her side. Lila was setting the table in the dining room, while Nate was playing with some toy trucks on the coffee table.

Nate was the first one to see Clint, “Daddy! Look trucks!” the boy excitedly said as he held up two of the toys to show his dad.

“I see, those are nice trucks you have there Nate.” Clint responded as he picked the child up and moved to the kitchen. “What are you all doing in here?”

“Making dinner.” Charlie said not taking her eyes off the carefully constructed garden salad she was making. The attention and focus that she was giving her creation appeared more to Clint as a painter than a sous-chef.

“You know there is a chef on-call here right?” Clint asked, directing the question at Kate. She had just gotten out of the hospital, even though she was ‘fine’, rest was what the doctor had ordered.

Kate knew what Clint was thinking, and informed him, “It’s all good. I’m just supervising the hot and sharp things. Charlie enjoys cooking.” Kate then held a strong stare with her daughter, and changed her tone to be stricter, “and wanted to cook dinner tonight for her family.”

Throwing some sharp cheddar cheese into the salad bowl, Charlie rolled her eyes and recited in a monotone, “Yes ma’am. They are my family, I will be nice.”

Clint couldn’t prevent the smile on his face at his daughter’s comment. He had obviously missed something regarding Charlie and her new ‘family’, and the scolding afterwards by Kate. It wasn’t all bad, Clint had just learned something ‘normal’ about his daughter. “You like to cook?”

“Yes, I do. I am very good at it.” The girl bragged moving onto the croutons. A chubby hand reached out to her. Charlie got the hint and handed one to her little brother. “He should go back to the living room; the kitchen is dangerous.”

Suppressing a laugh, Clint could only nod. He followed the directions given to him and put Nate down and guided him back to his trucks. “Where is Cooper?” He asked sitting down on the couch.

Kate walked around the kitchen counter to the side that was technically the living room and sat down in one of the four stools that were pushed in under it. Angling herself so she could keep an eye on Charlie and talk to Clint she caught him up to speed. “Cooper is upstairs. Has been there since you left. I decided to just let him be until dinner. Lila is arranging the table and deciding where everyone should sit during meals. We had some difficulties at the start but putting each in a different room with a job to do has helped.”

Seeing that Charlie wasn’t doing anything too dangerous in the kitchen, Kate joined Clint, “It’s hard, even if nothing had happened, Charlie was an only child, and Lila was the only girl in her family. There was bound to be some ‘Queen Bee’ issues.”

Clint knew that the girls were going to be the hardest to get to come around and accept the new family situation. “Well, there goes my plans for a third one. I don’t think we could handle another girl.”

“Please tell me you’re joking. I don’t even think that is physically possible anymore after Charlie.”

“I am so joking.” He said amused at the notion of another Charlie running around. Looking to the child that was so different from the daughter he envisioned ten years ago when Kate was pregnant, he asked for Kate to expand on the hobby, “So, she likes to cook?”

“Long story, but when she was younger, and her abilities were a… let’s just say they were a challenge, I would let her help me cook. Took to it like a duck to water. It’s a stress relief for her. I can tell she is anxious or sad when she comes home from school because she goes straight to the kitchen and asks if she can make dinner.”

The thought of Charlie ever being anxious or sad was downright depressing to Clint. It was easy to see why the child was cooking tonight. Her anxiety must be through the roof after what had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Grateful at least he now had a coping mechanism for such situations for when Charlie was feeling that way. He knew he should stay on the cooking topic, but Kate did hint at something about Charlie’s past that he couldn’t ignore. Looking around he saw the only child in earshot was Nate, so he pried, “What kind of challenge?”

Kate did the same thing, checked around for listeners, feeling safe with the distance and low voice, she came clean of the difficulties that she experienced with raising Clint’s oldest daughter as a single mother, “She was little and didn’t know what she was doing. Very imaginative and was creating all sort of things.  I swear, if Xavier wasn’t already bald or Storm didn’t already have gray hair, what Charlie was doing would have made them that way.” Clint raised his eyebrows for Kate to continue, but she instead gave him something better, a common issue. “The only person she would listen to was Logan, pissed me off so much. It was my child, and she only did what he said. I hated him with a passion, and he didn’t give a damn. Charlie was his ‘pup’.” Clint couldn’t believe what he was hearing, Kate had the same issue with Logan as he did. Why did she wait until now to say anything? Then Kate added the reason, “Mind you at that time, we didn’t know about the Hyperthymesia, her perfect memory.”

Clint cut off her explanation, “I know what it is, the Professor explained it.”

“Well, one day it all became too much, and the Professor asked if he could read her. He said there had to be a reason for what she was doing and who she listened to.” Feeling the need to justify the permission she gave for the man to invade their child’s mind, “Clint, we were all at our wit’s end with her.”

Clint knew the feeling, he had a similar moral debate with himself when asked by the Professor to allow him to read Cooper’s mind, “What did he see when he read her?”

“The aftermath of the Sandbox. Her ‘treatment’, and mine. She was a newborn and the first emotion she experienced was fear.” Kate shut her eyes at the horror, then reopened them and continued, “Then Logan appeared. He was the first person who ever caused her to feel anything that wasn’t scary. They bonded immediately when he saved her. I felt lower then dirt for how I treated him.”

Everything suddenly made sense to Clint, at least almost everything, “So, you apologize to Logan by sleeping with him?”

“How do you apologize to people.” She asked with a glitter of humor in her eyes. “Contrary to what you may think, I didn’t go straight from the Sandbox into bed with another. It took some time for me to be comfortable with anyone. Logan wasn’t even a thing until a few years ago.” She could see Clint doing the math, between what Charlie had earlier said about Logan comparing her to her mother ‘working through her issues by dating the wrong people’, and just now saying that her thing with Logan was new, a whole lot of questions were running through his mind, “Come on Clint. I was a single mother, and after finding out what Charlie remembered, I had this guy, a very, very handsome and nice guy, that my daughter loved. Plus, yes, I did feel bad about how I treated him.  I was jealous of his relationship with Charlie over the years, so I made an effort to get along with him, if only, at least at the start, for Charlie.”

That was a lot to process for Clint. He couldn’t fault Kate for any of it. It even to a degree caused Clint to check himself about his own feelings of jealousy towards the Wolverine after hearing how he was perceived by his infant daughter in her time of need. Even when Kate hated him, he stuck around for Charlie. Then when Kate lightened up, he took his shot to be with her. “Years? Damn, you made the man work for it. If memory serves me correctly, all I had to do was take you out to a bar and let you beat me a darts.”

Laughing out loud at the totally unexpected retort to her confession, Kate came back, “You didn’t let me win anything, I won that game fair and square.”

“You keep telling yourself that girlie-girl.” Clint replied as he leaned into kiss her.


	39. Chapter Thirty-Eight ~ Attack of the Flying Tomatoes

 

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Attack of the Flying Tomatoes

“Are these small enough?” Lila asked looking up from the cutting board to where Charlie was standing next to her cutting onions.

Glancing over at the diced tomatoes she had tasked Lila with for the meal prep, Charlie nodded her approval. “Very nice job. Have you done this before?”

“Oh yeah, many times. Back at home, we have a vegetable garden. You name it, we grew it. Mom would send me out every afternoon after school to get the stuff we needed for dinner.” Lila suddenly stopped. She realized that she would never do any of that again. Her mom was gone, her home was gone, and so was her garden.

“Lila?” Charlie looked back over at the halt in conversation. She was trying to be nice, so why was Lila crying again? She didn’t say anything mean about her or her HYDRA mom, oh, her mom. “Clint! Mom! You need to come in here now!” She screamed out into the living room at her parents.

Clint was in the kitchen before Charlie could finish her sentence. Doing a fast inspection, assuming the shout was a cry for medical attention, he wasn’t relieved the slightest when he saw Lila sobbing. A cut with a knife while slicing tomatoes he could deal with, but this was something completely different. Kate wasn’t too far behind, and automatically looked for someone to blame after the girls went at each other earlier when Lila returned from therapy.  It was fascinating to her how preteens could transform from yelling at each other to good friends within minutes. However, working at a school for the past decade taught her that it was just as easy for them to revert in as much time. She had been waiting for them to start it up again.  “Charlie, what did you do?”

Wide eyed at the scene, Charlie defended herself, “Nothing, I swear. We were talking about her garden at her house.”

Understanding now what had happened, talking about her home probably triggered how much Lila had lost. Kate kneeled in front of the crying child, “You miss home sweetie?”

Rubbing her nose with the back of her hand Lila confirmed, “I miss my house, my garden and my mom. They are all gone.”

“What did HYDRA do to her garden?” Charlie asked.

“Charlie, hush,” Kate commanded as she reached up on the counter for a paper towel to offer Lila to blow her nose with. “Lila, I’m sorry about all of that. I know you are sad honey. Do you remember what I said about being sad?”

Accepting the towel, Lila blew her nose and wiped it, “That its ok?”

“That’s right. Its ok to be sad.” Kate knew that bribery wasn’t the way out of this, but it was the only card she had left in her hand, “I know it won’t be the same, but your daddy is going to get us a big house with a big yard. We can have a garden there. It will be all yours to do with whatever you want.”

“It won’t be the same. It will taste different.” Lila grabbed the cutting board that had the diced tomatoes and threw it out of the kitchen, past Kate and Clint, and into the hallway. “These tomatoes will taste different!”

“Mom! Those were mine!” Charlie said about the key ingredient in her meal she was cooking. “I don’t have anymore!” She charged at Lila, but Clint moved in to block Charlie from reaching her target. In one swift move, Clint had a screaming and kicking Charlie up off the ground over his shoulder.

Kate locked eyes with Clint. What the hell are they supposed to do? Both girls were about to have total meltdowns right here and now. Each was acting out because they were confused and just wanted to go home. While going back to the school was an option for Charlie, the farmhouse for Lila was not. It was a HYDRA target and no longer a safe place to be.  Kate stood up, she had taken the lead on this one, so she had to see it through. The kids needed normalcy, discipline, and love. “Lila, again, I am sorry you are sad, but there was no need to take it out on Charlie. She has been working very hard to make dinner for us all. No matter how you are feeling, you don’t get to hurt other people. Now, please get the paper towels and go clean that up.”

Lila just stared at Kate, this woman was not her mother, and didn’t get to tell her what to do. “You’re not my mom.”

Clint held on to a wiggling Charlie who at this point was crying herself. Having never seen his eldest daughter cry, Clint felt the need to comfort her. However, he was getting the feeling that keeping Charlie’s eyesight away from Lila and her mother was best for everyone. Then there was Lila, Clint also wanted to go to her to both comfort and discipline. That last particular comment had him ready to pounce. While true, it was said as an excuse to not follow Kate’s instructions.  Lastly on the list of concerns going through Clint’s brain was Kate’s ability to handle stress right now. All three of the women in his life were currently a ticking time bomb about to go off in the kitchen and he was charged with defusing it. Luckily for him, he now knew just how to deescalate the situation for each female. Putting Charlie down, he held her in place as she struggled to break free, “Charlie, go do what you can without tomatoes right now and I will call down for someone to bring some up. Lila, do as Kate said and clean up the hallway, then go upstairs and take a bath before dinner. Kate, open a bottle of wine.” Clint didn’t even know that he was holding his breath until he let it out as each of his girls left to do what he asked them to. He honestly couldn’t believe that had worked.

~~~

Tony knocked on the door twice and waited a moment before letting himself in. He had been working in his lab after about fifteen minutes of trying to go to sleep, he was still on an adrenalin rush. Pepper almost fell asleep in the elevator going up to their private floor and was out in no time once she made it into bed. He was looking over a few things when FRIDAY informed him that Clint had made a service order through the kitchen. Not that Tony was snooping on the Bartons, but he did have it set up that his AI notified him whenever anyone in the apartment needed anything. A request as simple as tomatoes caught his attention. He knew they had a fully stocked kitchen, complete with the staple produce, so additional tomatoes caught his curiosity.  He went down to the kitchen and told the carrier that he would deliver the food himself.

Walking in he first saw Nate playing with Lucky and some toy trucks in the living room. The boy never even looked up at the visitor. That may have been the first thing Tony saw, but the first thing he smelled was the incredible aroma of an authentic Italian sauce. He didn’t know what he expected when he went into the kitchen, but it wasn’t Charlie standing on a stool over the stove stirring her creation in the sauce pan.

Tony’s mind flashed back to when he was younger and would walk into the kitchen and watch his mother do the exact thing his granddaughter was doing now. It was a rare pleasant feeling of nostalgia, “Hey Princess, is that what smells so good in here?”

“Are those my tomatoes?” She sharply asked.

Not appreciating the tone, but Tony could tell something was a matter. “Yes they are.” Seeing the frustration in his granddaughter’s face, he pushed, “What’s wrong?”

Obviously flustered, Charlie told him of her dilemma, “I have to keep stirring, and at the same time dice the tomatoes. Lila ruined everything!”

“Calm down, that’s what Grandpapa is for.” Tony soothed as he pulled the cutting board and the dicing knife off the drying rack. As he unloaded the produce onto the board to prep for cutting, he casually asked, “So how did Lila ruin everything?”

Tony was expecting a short reply from the child. His limited exposure to Charlie always had the girl being direct and to the point. A trait he respected but knew he would become irritated by in the long run. He was not prepared for the soul baring from the child, “I was being nice. Like really nice. I let her help me cook. I had her cut all the tomatoes up for the sauce, and she did a good job. I told her that.” Charlie said all in one breath, which only emphasized to Tony the distress the child was under, “Then she started talking about her stupid house and stupid garden and really stupid mom. I was listening to her and she started to cry. Mom and Clint came in and Lila threw all the tomatoes into the hallway, just because she thinks they won’t taste like her stupid garden’s! Mom even said she could have her own garden at the new house, and Lila still threw it!”

_So, the shit had finally hit the fan,_ Tony thought to himself. The first therapy session must have been more effective than anyone thought. “You know Lila is upset right now, but what she did was wrong, but you are going to have to be the older sister and cut her some slack for a bit. You have both your mom and dad, she… doesn’t.”

“I know.” Charlie admitted in her regular tone, apparently having someone to confide in helped calm her down. A detail Tony stored away for later use.  He was pretty happy with himself, he had helped his granddaughter through an emotional crisis that left everyone involved unharmed. As far as either of the Starks or Bartons families went, that was a rarity. Then Charlie decided that since her grandfather was a person she could talk to, she let it all out, “I think my mom or Clint killed Lila’s mom.”

Tony almost cut off his index finger when that revelation was spoken at the same time he started slicing, checking his tone he kept up the casual conversation and asked, “What makes you think that?”

“When Lila talks about her mom, Clint and mom look away.” Charlie looked over to Tony and enlightened him to the significance of her observation, “Logan says that means a person is guilty.”

_Damn this girl was smart,_ Tony internalized. This was not a road he wanted to go down without her parents present, so he picked the one part of her statement that would make Charlie believe they hadn’t changed the subject, “Logan taught you a lot of stuff, didn’t he?”

Going back to stirring her sauce, Charlie agreed, “Yeah, he is really smart.” She jumped off the stool and scraped half of Tony’s diced tomatoes into a bowl. Throwing a quick glance to him before returning to the stove, Charlie added, “You’re smart too.”

Amused by the opinion, Tony said, “I have been told that once or twice.”

“You fixed my mom and Clint’s memories. Now he knows he is my dad.” Charlie remarked as supporting evidence of Tony’s intelligence, like he needed any.

Grabbing another tomato from the pile to dice, since Charlie didn’t say ‘stop’ when she came over. Tony decided to roll the dice with just how much the girl would tell him. She was opening up a lot, and while any professional would have advised against him pushing too much too soon, they weren’t Tony. “So, if he knows he is your dad and you know he’s your dad, why do you keep calling him Clint?”

Shrugging her shoulders, “What should I call him?”

“I don’t know,” Tony said in a carefree mocking tone, “how about since he is your dad, you call him that?”

That suggestion made Charlie turn around. She stared at Tony while still stirring the sauce, “Wouldn’t Lila and Cooper be mad at me?”

Ok, so there was apparently more to this, and she was willing to talk about it. “He’s your dad too. You can call him that just like they can.” Tony looked up and over to her, “Did someone say something to you about that Charlie?”

“No,” She answered, then turned back around, “but they always say, ‘my dad’, not ‘our dad’. They grew up with him, so I guess they can say it.”

Tony returned his eyes to the dicing, trying to keep the child talking in an informal setting. “Cooper didn’t grow up with your mom, but he still calls her ‘mom’.”

“He was little when HYDRA took him. He was with mom for years before then. I was never with Clint.” Then Charlie proved she was her mother’s child by providing the formula to show her work of how she arrived at her solution, “You’re my mom’s dad, but she didn’t grow up with you, so she calls you Tony.”

There was a simple logic to the girl’s reasoning that Tony couldn’t dispute. “That is an entirely different situation. But between you and me, I would love it if your mom called me dad, but she is older then you, grown-ups do things differently. Do you want to call Clint ‘dad’?”

“Does he want me to? Like you want mom to?”

“I think he does.” Tony confessed then offered up in case the child didn’t know, “Charlie, your father loves you so much. You and your mom both. Last night, Clint wouldn’t leave your mom alone for more than a minute. It was clear to anyone that he loves her, now more than ever.” Not receiving any reaction to that, Tony attempted another approach, “Did you know your mom and dad lived in the City before you were born?”

“Before HYDRA?” The girl asked as a time marker.

“Yes, before HYDRA.” Tony bitterly replied, “But I went to their apartment last week. No one had been in it since the night HYDRA took Cooper. You know what I found in it?”

“No, what?”

Placing the knife down, Tony went over to Charlie and held out his hand for her to take, “Put the sauce on low and come with me.”

~~~

It didn’t dawn on Tony that he didn’t know where anyone else in the apartment was and that he had left Nate downstairs alone until he heard Clint and Kate’s voices coming through the door that led to the master bedroom. He paused for a moment to overhear a few comments between the couple, and to make sure he wasn’t about to disrupt something that Charlie and he didn’t need to see.

_“I would be out of town like twice a week, and only overnight if there was a crisis of some sort.”_

_“I don’t know Kate, what did Hank say about this?”_

_“Nothing yet, but I can’t imagine the Professor talking to me about it without Hank’s blessing.”_

“Knock knock.” Tony said as an announcement of his arrival. Clint was sitting in one of the chairs in the sitting area of the room, while Kate was laying across the bed on her stomach facing him. Both had a glass of red wine in hand, with the almost empty bottle on the table next to Clint.

“You know you are supposed to do that from the other side of the door and wait.” Clint offered, taking a sip from his glass, he then asked for confirmation that Tony was aware of the simple fact. “Right?”

“Whatever,” Tony said discounting the concept, “So what is this? Kids are having break downs all over the place, and the parents are upstairs drinking?”

“Sums it up quite nicely really.” Kate said sitting up, “What’s up?”

“I wanted to show Charlie something, so get out.” Tony insisted then added a few other important facts for the couple that they needed to know, “Nate is downstairs by himself and the stove is on low, so someone needs to go stir the sauce.”

Clint wasn’t following, Tony needed to show Charlie something that was in Clint and Kate’s bedroom, and the stove was on while a toddler was walking around unsupervised. This couldn’t end well, “Excuse me?”

“You heard the man, Grandpapa has to show me something.” Charlie repeated on behalf of Tony. Stunned expressions were exchanged among the adults of Charlie’s use of Tony’s familiar title.

If Tony was questioning his progress bonding with Charlie during dinner prep, her last comment vanquished all of them. He was her ‘grandpapa’ now. Maintaining a blank face so not to disclose how much Charlie saying that affected him, Tony went on, “We have been having a nice tête-à-tête downstairs and I need to show Charlie something to back up my story.”

“Ok, we will be downstairs honey if you need anything.” Kate said cautiously as she beckoned for Clint to leave with her.

As he was about to walk pass Tony to the hallway, Clint stopped and whispered, “How the hell did you get her to do that?”

Turning his head to Clint, Tony matched the low volume, “She likes to talk, I think I am onto something here. Standby for something awesome.”

When the parental units were gone, Tony looked over the room. Pepper must have displayed that picture in here, but where was it? There were only a few that showed Clint and Kate together, and only one that showed the young family. Then he saw it, displayed proudly on Clint’s nightstand. At least he thought that was Clint’s nightstand. What side of the bed belonged to which one? From the looks of it, the right side of the bed had been designated to Clint. The picture of a pregnant Kate, Clint and Cooper outside of the apartment building was in the middle of two other pictures, one of Nathanial and another of Lila. Tony knew Kate had no less than a million pictures of Charlie at the cottage, but none were available at the time of decorating. A deficiency that needed to be rectified sooner rather than later, especially if Charlie was questioning her place in the family unit.

Picking up the white frame, Tony remember the last time he held the wooden item. It was the item that clued him in of the fact that Charlie existed at all. Now, he was showing her the very item that brought her into his life. Sitting down on the bed, he patted the area next to him, “Come here and sit next to grandpapa princess.”

Charlie followed the command, and looked at the item Tony was holding, “That’s mom and Clint.”

“Yes, it is, look how young they look. See there is Cooper.” Tony pointed to Charlie’s older brother and then moved his finger to Kate’s swollen belly, “And that is you.”

Charlie’s eyebrows knitted in confusion, “What?”

Tony had to stop, ten-year-olds know where babies come from, don’t they? Hedging his bets that she probably knew, Tony used Charlie’s own time markers to explain it, “This picture was taken a few weeks before HYDRA got your mom. That building is where you all lived. See how happy Clint is, see where his hand is at?”

“On mom’s stomach.”

“On you Charlie.” Tony corrected, “You are his baby girl. You think that you were never with Clint, so you can’t call him ‘dad’, but here you are with him.” Handing her the picture, “Pepper put the picture in here, but maybe it would be better in your room. That is where your parents put it originally. At the apartment, this frame was on the dresser in your nursery. A nursery your dad painted pink just for you, he even already knew that pink was your favorite color.”

“How?” The girl asked in wonderment of the story behind the picture she was holding. Any explanation Tony was going to follow up was interrupted by a knock on the bedroom door.

“Yes?” Tony called out.

Clint opened the door and popped his head in, “See, that is how you knock on a door.” He entered and took in the scene, “Everything alright in here? I just needed to grab the wine bottle, Lila came back downstairs along with Cooper, so… Kate and I need alcohol.”

Charlie looked at Clint, and Tony could only assume it was with new eyes, “Grandpapa said I could have this.”

Reaching out to grab the item Charlie was talking about Clint asked, “What is ‘this’?” Looking at the picture she handed him, Clint let out a small laugh, “Oh my God, I haven’t seen this picture in ten years.”

“Well, yeah.” Tony said at the obvious statement.

“You know when this picture was taken?” It was a rhetorical question, Clint knew they didn’t know. “We took this picture the day we found out you were a girl.” He looked up from the picture and looked directly at Charlie, “You were stubborn from the start, you know that? Kate would have to go to the doctor’s every month, and I went to each and every appointment.”  Tony knew Clint was saying that more for himself then his audience. He was very involved in his home life and children when he lived in the city with Kate, all of that changed once he moved with Cooper to Iowa. “Sometimes they did a sonogram. Every time they did, you would turn, so we couldn’t see if you were a girl or boy. You would just moon us.” Clint laughed, and Tony joined in seeing the humor in an impatient Clint frustrated over his child refusing to disclose their gender. “Your mom was fine with it, but not knowing was killing me. An older neighbor told me to have your mom drink orange juice before the scan, said that the sugar would make you jump around in there. Kate was so mad at me because I made her drink like half a gallon of the stuff, but I was determined to know.” Staring again at the picture, “And it worked. I stopped on the way back from the doctor to buy pink paint and had your room painted by the end of the day. I was only supposed to be away from S.H.I.E.L.D. for my lunch to take Kate to her appointment, but I called out for the rest of the day to get the nursery done.” He handed the frame back to Charlie, “Of course you can have it.”

Taking back the picture Charlie said, “Thank you…” Tony could almost see through into her mouth to see her tongue hit her palate to form the ‘d’ sound, but she never went as far as to vocalize it.

Clint must have also caught the hesitation, but let it go. “Hey Charlie, your mom says that your sauce is ‘reduced’, whatever that means.”

“Oh no, I have to get down there!” Charlie exclaimed in panic as she jumped off the bed. Turning back at the door, “Grandpapa, you need to finish the dicing, or it will be too watery.”

“How about you give Lila another chance at that?” Clint suggested knowing that it was shaky ground he was about to impart on. “She said she was sorry, but she needs to say it to you.”

“That’s fine. Grandpapa says I need to cut her some slack.”

The father and grandfather watched the child leave the room, almost as if lost in thought, Tony observed, “She is an amazing child Clint.”

“Seems like you two are getting along well.”  It may have come out as sounding jealous, but Clint didn’t mean it that way. He was happy Charlie was at least bonding with one person in the family who wasn’t Kate. He would have preferred it to be him, but it was a small move in the right direction. “How did that happen?”

“I asked questions.” Tony said effortlessly, “Just happens that after Lila threw Charlie’s stuff, she felt the need to talk.”

“Kate says cooking calms her.” Clint informed him.

“We all need something. In a way I can see it, you know what I mean?”

Shaking his head at the abstract statement, Clint confessed, “Not in the slightest.”

“Well, everyone is on her about what she can and cannot make, with her powers. She has to ask this person or that one. Even you said yourself Clint, that you put limits on her as soon as you were alone with Charlie. However, she can make anything she wants in the kitchen and people love it.”

“That is very insightful Tony.” Clint commented, believing in what Tony said to be true. It made a lot of sense. “So why were you guys up here. What’s with the picture?”

“Oh, that was my little experiment.” Tony told Clint standing up, “Charlie doesn’t think she can call you ‘dad’ because she didn’t live with you, like the others did.” Tony noticed that Clint actually appeared heartbroken at what he revealed, “The kid has a lot of supporting evidence to back that up too. Kate never lived with me, so she calls me ‘Tony’, but for three years Cooper did live with Kate, so he is permitted to call her ‘mom’.” Hating how Clint looked, Tony attempted to give him some good news, “I showed her that picture, told her how happy you were about her pending arrival. You even made sure that she had her own room in the apartment. A story you cemented, may I add, with your tale of playing hooky at S.H.I.E.L.D. to paint that room. She knows who you are, even said I was smart for helping you to remember that you were her dad.”

The hurt in his eyes was replaced with optimism as Clint questioned, “She said I was her dad? Those words?”

“She gets it Clint; just doesn’t think she is allowed to refer to you as that.” This was something that Clint and Charlie were going to have to fix themselves, Tony only hoped that his insight into the workings of the child’s mind helped in hurrying along the process. There was another issue that was in the back of his mind, a sly comment that Charlie made that Tony was unable to shake, “I didn’t press the issue, but she also mentioned that she didn’t want Lila and Cooper to be mad at her if she called you that. I asked if anyone said anything and she said ‘no’, but I think something else may be going on with that one, so keep your eyes open. Especially between her and Lila.”

Clint pulled his head back sharply. Tony’s warning meant something to him, “Kate told me when Lila came back up from her session, she and Charlie got into it. I get it now why Charlie feels that way, about me. I think deep down she does want to get along with Lila and is trying her best. She just can’t control her temper, and Lila is… dealing with a lot right now. I’m not making excuses for them; this behavior can’t go on. I am just trying to understand why the behavior is happening.”

“It’s not like she doesn’t come by it honestly, look who her father and grandfather are.” Tony said referring to Charlie’s temper. “Was this before the flying tomatoes.”

“Yeah it was. When Lila came back, Kate asked her how things went, nothing in-depth or prying, but it was apparently enough to make Lila go on the defensive. In response to the innocent question, Lila stated that her life was better before I remembered who Kate was. Charlie, being the smart ass that she is, came back with something to the effects of ‘well my life was a lot better before your mom stole Clint and Cooper.”

Tony was silently proud of Charlie’s comeback, it was a good one. He kept that to himself to allow Clint to continue, so he could understand why Clint understood Charlie resistance to calling him ‘dad’. “Lila told her that her mom didn’t ‘steal me’, that she and Kate were stealing me from her, I was her dad.”

It now was clear to Tony the comment in the kitchen of how Lila and Cooper called Clint, “my dad’, not ‘our dad’.  Clint and Tony each had one part of the story, but together they had just figured out the entire thing. “According to Kate, the entire thing ended when Charlie called Lila, and I quote, ‘a HYDRA bastard’.” Clint let a little smirk show at that, there was a paternal pride in the name calling that Clint could only share with Tony. “That’s why Kate and I were up here, she wanted me to know what happened and the build up to the whole ‘flying tomatoes’ incident.”

Tony summed up Clint’s entire account with, “Oh shit, well that clears a few things up. At least it looks like Charlie is going to try.”

Clint was a lot of things, but a fool wasn’t one of them. He knew everything just needed time. It wasn’t going to all be resolved the first day. “Then in five minutes they will be right back at it.”

There was no doubt in Tony’s mind at all about Clint’s prediction, but there was something ‘normal’ about it. “But, aren’t all sisters like that? Particularly when they are so close in age?”

“No clue, had an older brother.” Clint confessed hoping Tony was correct. It would be the first normal thing to happen to the family in over ten years.

“Only child myself, but I’ve heard sisters can be brutal to each other.”

Any follow up on the topic was ceased when Cooper walked in, “Dinner is ready.”

Clint nodded that he heard his son and turned to Tony, “You stayin’?”

“I helped to make it didn’t I?” He responded, “Plus, I want to know just how good Charlie’s cooking is. Could be a venture there for the future.”

~~~

Normalcy was the key to settling everyone down. The four children may have been raised separately but the one thing they had in common was an evening routine. The people around the dining room table may have been different, but it was still dinner at a table with family. As Tony predicted, the food was incredible. Even after two servings of the pasta dish and leftovers to bring back to Pepper, he still was having trouble believing that Charlie made it from scratch. Charlie had been the perfect dinner hostess, making sure everyone had their fill and enjoyed the meal. It was clear the child took joy in cooking and watching people enjoy the fruits of her labor. Clint continuously complemented Charlie, almost to excessiveness, which got him eyerolls from everyone else, but genuine smiles from his daughter.

Clint and Charlie were not the only people bonding at the table. When the topic of school came up, Lila mentioned that she didn’t do well in math and would appreciate Kate and Clint picking a school that did not offer that subject as a required class.  Cooper contradicted his sister by saying math was his favorite class and was in all the advance placement courses at his old school.  At that point Clint spoke up that Kate was a math teacher at the mutant school, so math should not be a problem any longer for Lila. He also mentioned that Cooper now had someone in the Barton household who would finally understand the work he brought home. 

Once the meal was over, Tony with leftovers in hand, bid the family good night with the promise of meeting downstairs in the morning for breakfast. It had been the perfect dinner, and Tony wanted to leave before anything happened that would dampen the memory. He truly believed this was the start of something good, a fresh start for everyone.  Lila and Cooper were cleaning off the table while Charlie tidied up the kitchen. Kate and Clint sat on the sofa watching Nate play in an effort to wear him out before bedtime. The parents allowed the older children to take charge of the cleanup while they opened another bottle of wine and enjoyed the domestic bliss.

 “Good night mom and dad.” Cooper said once he was done with his chores and passed his parents in the living room.

Looking up from where he was helping Nate collect his toys, Clint called back, “’Night Coop, see you in the morning.”

“You are turning in now?” Kate questioned standing up to follow her eldest, “Here I come.”

Cooper turned on the bottom step and directed to his mom with his hand up in protest, “Whoa calm down mom, I haven’t needed anyone to put me to bed in years.”

“Come on Cooper,” The mother pleaded to her son, “it’s been ten years since the last time I did bedtime with you. You remember? I would read you a story, check your butt in case you needed a new diaper, and tuck you in? Throw your mom a bone and let me do it?”

Clint sent Cooper a look from behind Kate trying through sheer mind power to get the teenager to relent and allow Kate to do it just for tonight. Cooper got the message, “Fine, but leave out the diaper check. I’ve made a lot of progress since we last did this.”

Picking up Nate, Clint handed him to Kate and motioned for the girls to follow her upstairs. In order to get all four children down for the night, they would have to divide and conquer the group. As the family ascended the steps, Clint laid out the attack plan, “I’ll take the girls and start teeth brushing and getting them into pajamas. You take the boys, put Coop down, and we will regroup in the girls’ room for hair and tuck-in.”

“Copy that.” Kate answered as they parted at the top of the stairs to go their separate ways with their charges.

~~~

“I don’t like this toothpaste.” Charlie cried out from the bathroom to Clint.

“Me either.” Lila concurred at the same loud volume.

“Well, then how about you don’t eat it and just use it for its intended purpose and brush?” Clint suggested as he was picking up the discarded clothes and throwing them into the hamper. “You girls should just be happy you have toothbrushes. Your grandpapa stole the last set.”

Charlie rinsed out her mouth and walked back into the bedroom, Lila was just moments behind her, “Why did he steal them?”

Charlie jumped up onto her bed and sat on the edge, while Lila went to Clint with a hairbrush and passed it to him. Sitting down in the white chair that separated the beds, Clint gestured for Lila to sit on his lap, “Long story that you are too young to hear.” Just then, Kate walked into the bedroom holding Nate with Lucky trailing behind her. “That didn’t take long.” Clint observed as he pulled the hair tie out of Lila’s hair and started to brush it out.

While Lila preferred her hair free at night, Charlie slept with hers in a braid. Putting Nate down to run around the room with Lucky to get out his last burst of energy, Kate went into the bathroom and grabbed another hair tie and brush. She thanked the Lord that Pepper designed this room, it had everything two preteen girls needed. “He hardly let me in his room. You were right Clint; these rooms are incredible. If I had that room growing up, I wouldn’t want to leave it either.”

Kate sat down on Charlie’s bed, and the girl made her way to sit between her mom’s legs. She moved her head up to tell her mother, “If you grew up with Tony you would have. Then you would call him ‘dad’ like he wants.”

Charlie tried to return her head looking forward, but Kate gently pulled the hand full of hair back to force the eye contact again, “Who told you that?”

“Well obviously Tony.” Clint answered with thick sarcasm that made each of his daughters laugh.  He hadn’t shared with Kate yet what Tony had said about Charlie, but every comment the child made confirmed Stark’s theory.

Separating Charlie’s hair into three sections, Kate replied, “Charlie, that is grown up stuff. He shouldn’t have talked to you about it. Just because someone wants something, doesn’t mean they get it.”

“Kate, go easy please, I think there was a method to his madness.” Clint asked hoping that Kate’s remarks wouldn’t undo any progress Tony or Clint had made that night. Picking Lila off his lap, he deposited her into her bed causing a fit of giggles to escape the girl.

Lila stopped laughing and looked at Clint, then turned her head, “Kate I’m sorry.”

“About what?” Kate asked focused on the braid she was creating.

The child was staring at her step-mother knowing that her father’s eyes were fixed on her, “Saying you weren’t my mom, and not doing what you asked me to.”

Looking at the child, Kate offered a smile. Lila must be obsessing over what she said earlier to Kate and wanted to resolve it before bedtime. “Well, I know I am not your mom, and I will never be. Maybe I can be your friend?”

Pushing herself up on her elbows, Lila refuted, “But you’re my stepmom.”

“Stepmoms can be friends too.” Kate explained returning to completing Charlie’s hair.

“Like you and Pepper?” Lila asked not completely sure how any of this worked.

“I barely know Pepper, just like you barely know me.” Kate cut her eyes up to Lila while her hands still worked, “But hopefully eventually we all will be really good friends. Deal?”

Laying back down, with that burden lifted Lila was sure she would be able to sleep now. “Deal Kate.”

Tapping Charlie’s thigh to get her to move into bed, Kate stood up and switched positions with Clint. The parents even did a little ‘tag’ hand smack when they passed each other. Kate pulled Lila’s blanket up further to under the girl’s chin, “You know I was thinking, and it’s alright if you don’t like my idea. Your dad has to go back to the farmhouse and clean it out, so all your things can go to the new house. Maybe he could grab some cuttings and seeds from your old garden to plant in the new one? What do you think?”

With eyes wide open in anticipation of what she thought to be the impossible, the girl responded, “Really? You can do that?”

“I’m not doing anything, except maybe order you some gardening stuff online. I am really good at that.” Kate informed her stepdaughter and she moved her hands to behind her to recline a bit on the bed. “However, all that dirty stuff is all your dad and you.”

For the first time since Tony arrived at the farm that horrible day, Lila formed an enormous sincere smile, “Great idea Kate. It could be our ‘daddy activity’.”

 “I have no idea what you are talking about, but I do always love it when someone says I have a great idea.” Kate said in answer to the child’s reaction and turned to Clint for an explanation.

“I have one with each kid. A special thing that I only do with them. It’s a way to make sure that each kid gets their own one-on-one time with me. It was really important when I was with S.H.I.E.L.D. and not around much.” Redirecting to Lila, “But yeah, sure your new ‘daddy activity can be gardening. I just need to get the garden then we are in business.” Clint then took his shot with his other daughter, turning to her he asked, “Charlie, any idea what you want your ‘daddy activity’ to be?”

Excitedly Lila explained moving her head on the pillow to face her sister, “It can be anything Charlie. Cooper and dad build stuff, and he goes on walks with baby Nate. What do you want to do with dad?”

The shot hit true, Lila told Charlie ‘with dad’ not ‘with my dad’. Could Tony be right about this, Charlie needing permission? Charlie felt her face heat up and panic fill her, as she unwantedly had the attention of the room, with everyone expecting an answer from her, “I don’t know.”

Clint saw the distress she was under, “Hey, you don’t have to answer right now. It’s been a long day, and you’re tired. We can talk about it later.” He patted Charlie’s hand twice and stood up, switching with Kate again for each daughter to receive a goodnight kiss from their ‘accepted’ parent. Clint hoped that one day, so much thought and careful coordination wouldn’t be needed. That one day, each child would want and get a goodnight kiss from each of the adults and think nothing of it.

Clint picked Nate up while Kate called the dog over and started towards the door. Charlie’s tired voice called. “Mom, are you going to be here in the morning?”

“Of course. Good night girls.” Kate said lifting her hand to the light switch.

“Clint?” Charlie queried next.

Surprised to be included, Clint didn’t want to assume the question he was being asked, “Yes Charlie?”

“Will you be here in the morning?”

Charlie had been through the ringer, there was no question about it. She had woken up this morning with only her siblings, that she didn’t know that well yet, and Pepper. Both parents gone and knowing that something was wrong. In a strong sure voice, he assured, “Yes, I will be here too.” With that remark, Kate turned off the lights.

Shifting a reluctant Nate on his hip, Clint closed the bedroom door. When there was only a crack left open, Charlie spoke again, “Promise?”

Reopening the door just enough to poke his head in, Clint swore, praying that he was truthful with his daughter, “Promise.”

~~~

Lastly it was Nate’s turn to go down. He should have been the first one, but it would take time to perfect the evening routine for the family. Clint carried him over to the bed while Kate carried Lucky. The child started to fuss with having to go to bed, but once he saw Kate lay Lucky down in the puppy’s own bed, the toddler was content to follow suit. Pointing to the shelf that was on the opposite wall with miscellaneous stuffed animals, he made a grabby gesture to the toys.

Being the closest, Kate asked the child, “Which one do you want?”

 Nate specified his request, “I want tiger.”

“I’ll get him.” Kate walked over and reached up to the high shelf to retrieve the animal. The stretch she was forced to make caused the sweater she was wearing to slide up, exposing her lower stomach. It was the first time Clint had seen it, he had heard about it, everyone in Xavier’s office did. He was now actually seeing it for the first time. There were roughly four six-inch scars running crisscrossed over the area. The pink of that scar tissue bright against her pale white skin. The botched C-section that Logan told him about. _“You didn’t have to push Kate’s guts back into her stomach because the person, to this day I don’t think he was a real doctor, botched the C-section and cut into her numerous times before ripping Charlie out of her.”_

Kate turned around with the demanded item just in time to see all the color drain from Clint’s face, and move to get out of the room, “Clint?” She called, thinking he was about to be sick, as she handed the toy to Nate. “Clint, are you alright?”

Shaking his head, he was honest with her. “When you reached to get the tiger, I saw…I saw on your…” He had to leave the room but before he did, Clint was able to mutter, “Jesus, I’m so sorry.”

Kate felt it was her responsibility to finish the ‘tuck-in’ for the three-year-old, since his father had apparently lost his mind. The child didn’t seem to have any issue with it. With Nate content in bed on his way to dreamland, she left and pulled the door closed behind her. Clint was leaning over the railing looking to the great room below. He was moving front to back, trying to control his breathing. She gently put her hand on his back and rubbed it up and down, trying to sooth him. “Clint, they are just scars.

Pushing himself upright, he looked to her, “What they did to you.” Clint reached over to Kate and pulled her shirt up to see the mutilations once more. This was his penance for the sin of not saving his family, a visual reminder of the torture his wife had to endure due to his failure. The method HYDRA used to force his child’s entry into the world.

Kate pushed down his hands and grabbed his face, then forced his eyes to focus on hers, “They are just scars.” She stressed slowly to ensure comprehension. “Charlie is alive. So am I. We are a family again.” Shaking his head to register her point, “Clint, HYDRA didn’t win. They didn’t win. They threw everything they had at us, strived to destroy us, hell, they even tried to erase us. and we are the ones left standing. We’re still standing!” To stress her point of them being the living breathing victors, Kate pulled his head towards hers and kissed him.

Caught up in the need and want of the moment, Clint picked Kate up and held her while she wrapped her legs around his torso and her arms around his neck. The kisses intensified as he started to walk to the bedroom. Kate untangled one arm and reach behind to fumble with the doorknob to open the door that would lead them to salvation.

In a moment of clarity, even though he had the ‘go ahead’ from Hank, he wanted to make sure Kate was feeling up to it, even with her current actions. Clint broke off the kiss and asked, “Are you sure?”

With the most exasperated face Clint had ever seen another human being make, Kate simply responded, “Shut up Hawkeye.”

“Yes ma’am.” He answered making his way through the doorway and kicked it shut behind him.

 

 


	40. Chapter Thirty-Nine ~ Coffee

 

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Coffee

The first thing the registered in Clint’s mind before he opened his eyes was the smell of a fresh pot of coffee. The second was a weight on his chest.  Opening his eyes, he had to remember where he was.  It was his first day waking up in the apartment after the remodeling and it took a moment for that to sink in. Casting his eyes downward he saw black hair, not brown. Brown hair was what his mind had been programed to expect to see first thing in the morning. It was another thing that he regrettably had to think about, since such a thing hadn’t happened in over a decade. It was Kate with him in the bed, not Laura. Blinking his eyes to bring the world into focus, he laid there savoring the moment and listening to Kate’s breathing. This was real, a mantra he had to repeat over and over in his mind before he could truly believe the concept. The third thing that Clint was able to take in that morning was a gentle tapping on the bedroom door. “Yeah?”

Clint was expecting it to be one of the children but wasn’t surprised at all when the lab technician’s voice called through the door. “I’m sorry to wake you Mr. Barton, but it’s Tracy from medical. I am here to collect Mrs. Barton’s blood sample.”

At least this time she knocked. It was a different scenario that had played out for the eleven o’clock blood draw, six hours ago. The woman just walked right in and caught Kate and Clint in a very interesting moment. “One moment please.” Looking back down to the head on his chest he started to run his fingers through her hair. “Kate? Kate, wake up. Tracy is back.”

Kate lifted her head and similar to Clint, had to pause for a bit to take in her surroundings. “Good morning, where are my pants?”

Drowsily chuckling at his wife’s ability to go from a deep sleep to wide awake and already problem solving, he told her, “Probably on the floor, come on.” He prompted as he sat up, forcing her to do the same. Sitting on the side of the bed, Clint reached down for his own discarded clothes that were hastily thrown on when Tracy arrived last night, and in the same manner taken off when she left. Dressed in a pair of purple and black checkered lounge pants and a black t-shirt, Clint waited by the door until Kate indicated that she was ready and allowed Tracy’s entrance.

“’Morning Tracy, thanks for the heads up this time.” He said as she passed him to set up her materials on Kate’s nightstand. It was humorous that the woman refused to make eye contact with him. It seemed she was still embarrassed by what she walked in on just hours ago. Deciding to make the awkward situation more relaxed he called over to Kate as she offered Tracy her right arm, “I’m going to go get some coffee. Why don’t you try to get some more sleep when you’re done?”

“I think I’m up.” Kate answered as she pulled her head back slightly when the needle was inserted, the technician wasn’t gentle in the lease. “Yup, I am definitely up now.”

~~~

In the hallway, the sound of people talking to each other was heard. Clint conducted a visual examination of the environment. All of the kids’ doors were shut. Glancing over the railing to down below, the culprit was spotted, Charlie. The girl was sitting on the couch with a laptop next to her watching the television. Descending the steps, Clint didn’t recognize the television program, first impression told him it was some type of newscast. What ten-year-old girl gets up at five in the morning to watch the news and play on the computer?

Taking the last few steps with heavy feet to alert the girl of his arrival, Clint greeted, “Good morning Charlie. What are you doing up at this hour?”

Eyes still trained on the television she answered, “’Morning, I always get up in time for London to open.”

That was not a response he was expecting. He had been wishing his children a ‘good morning’ for years, receiving various replies, but never one even similar to that. Stopping his movement towards the kitchen, Clint knew before he even asked, that he would regret it. “In time for London to do what?”

“The London Stock Exchange opens at five o’clock eastern time.” Charlie informed her father.

Clint could only stare at her and try to manage some comprehension of what she had just said to him. “I honestly cannot handle you right now without coffee. No offense.”

“None taken.” Charlie said as she got up and followed Clint into the kitchen. “Mom says the same thing. There is a pot already made.”

Pulling a coffee cup from out of the cupboard, Clint turned to his daughter. “Wait a minute, you got up early and made coffee? Are you sure you’re mine?”

“Mom said that I am, and Dr. McCoy showed me the test results.” She replied in a very matter of fact manner giving Clint the impression the Charlie at some point doubted her paternity. For sure something he needed to ask Kate about later. Giving more insight into her life, she told her father about her morning chores, “I make coffee every morning. Mom says if I’m going to be up before the sun, then I might as well make myself useful.” Charlie lifted her cup, “A refill if you please.”

“Of course.” Clint replied, not thinking about the request that was just made. He hadn’t had his coffee yet. Some delay in processing was to be expected. Someone lifting a cup at him while he was holding the pot of coffee was a mental cue for him to pour some into the offered cup. Just as the liquid was about to spill into the waiting mug, Clint realized what he was doing. “Wait a minute. I’m not giving you coffee.”

“I’ve already had a cup.” The child responded thinking that her answer would suffice enough to gain what she wanted.

Clint leaned his hip against the corner of where the cabinets met, and just looked at the child. He had to take in the entertaining statement Charlie had made. “Two things, one, you are obviously my child. Since only a child of mine would have already consumed a cup of coffee within minutes of waking up at the age of ten, and two, does your mom allow this?”

Gently shaking the cup in his direction, Charlie endeavored to see just how far she could get with her new-found father by appealing to the much sought after authoritarian role the man was trying to be to her. “I believe the point is – what do you allow?”

Clint already had three children by the time Charlie came into his life, he saw the lame try a mile away. Charlotte was trying to get her way by letting Clint get his. It was a win-win he had to admit. That and there was no one around to witness the effective manipulation effort. “One more cup, then you switch to water or juice, understood?” The girl nodded at the conditions as he started to pour. “Leave room for cream and sugar?” He asked in order to successfully conduct his job as a barista.

“No thank you.” Charlie replied pulling the cup away once it was filled.

Clint couldn’t help the large grin that made its way onto his face as he did the same to his own cup. “That’s my girl.” He then moved his mug towards hers. “Here’s to a good day.” Charlie mirrored her dad’s expression as she ‘clanked’ her cup against his.

“Are we moving again?” She questioned after she took her first sip from her second cup.

Nodding as he swallowed, Clint answered, “Yeah, to our own house. It will be between here and your school, so don’t worry.” He wanted to do it as soon as possible before anyone got too comfortable and it was another gigantic uprooting for the children. That and he didn’t want them to get used to the lavish amenities offered at the compound.

Charlie looked up at him and tilted her head. “Because you are still an Avenger?”

Clint knew there was an angle being played here, but he needed additional intel to figure it all out. “I think I am going to be more of a ‘reserved player’ on the team. Full retirement hasn’t worked out as I expected, either time I tried it. Also, I need to be able to get to you kids easily if need be.” Kate was possibly leaving her teaching position to do other things. It could require her to travel and sit in a lot of long meetings. Clint was going to have to take on most of the day-to-day responsibilities if everything worked out. He wasn’t upset about it at all, in fact he was very much looking forward to becoming a part-time stay-at-home dad, and part-time Avenger.

Charlie looked to be confused, probably because she didn’t know that the residential area was only a miniature part of the compound. She was unclear that the building was the base of operations for the Avengers, much like the school was for the X-Men. “What will you do here?”

Clint’s best guess was that the daily operations of the X-Men wouldn’t differ too much with the activities of the Avengers, minus the running of the school. Charlie probably was aware of what the mutant group did, so Clint could be honest about the actions of his own team. “Train, help train others, support with mission development, stuff like that.”

Charlie went over to the other side of the counter and pulled out the stool. Clint watched as she climbed up and sat down, facing him. There was something on her mind that she wanted, and she was too shy to just come out and ask her father, an emotion that before that moment he would have never thought to attach to the child. “You help others train? Like teach them how to fight?”

Lifting his coffee to his lips again, Clint got out before he sipped, “Yeah, something like that.”

“How old are they?” Charlie asked gazing into her mug. There it was, she was asking about training. All the warning bells in Clint’s head were going off. The child had been raised with the X-Men, if training was something she was interested in, it would have already been addressed by them before Clint ever reentered the picture. He thought back to something that Logan had said over comms right before the start of the mission: _“Cyclops and Storm are explaining to Charlie that she is not allowed to kill anyone.”_ Of course, she would want to fight, the child was deathly afraid of the terrorist group. She had probably requested numerous times to be taught how to fight the demons of her early days. The X-Men must have denied her for a variety of reasons, the biggest being her age. Now here she was finding out that her father was going to be spending a majority of his time at the compound training and sparring with others. The exact thing she wanted. Clint now knew where this was heading. “Charlie, what do you want?”

Casting her eyes downwards, in a small voice, Charlie reminded him, “Lila said it could be anything. Right? And you did ask me what I wanted to do.”

“Teaching you how to fight wasn’t really what I meant.” Clint said going around to be able to stand by her.

Looking up again, Charlie’ speaking pace quickened, “But it’s what I want to do, with you. It will be my ‘daddy activity’.”

This kid really knew how to get to people. Hearing her say the word ‘daddy’, even if it wasn’t at him, it was about him. That was enough for Clint to give her anything her heart desired. “Have you ever spoken to your mom about this?” Putting his index finger up in warning, he added, “And don’t start with the ‘mom versus dad’ thing again. I swear if I get my butt handed to me for giving you coffee, you’re in trouble.”

“She told me that when Logan thought I was ready, then I could do it. But Logan kept saying that I wasn’t.” Charlie put her hands on the counter to use as leverage to stand up on the stool, so she could face Clint at almost equal height. “I’m not at the school anymore, so that means that I’m not protected. I have to learn to fight in case HYDRA gets me at the new house.”

“It’s not going to happen. HYDRA is gone, and I won’t let anyone get you.” He promised meeting her powerful glare. “Charlie, I promise, you are protected with me.”

In an effort to prove her case, she made Clint aware of just what plagued her young and tortured mind. “What if they get you too? They get mom, Cooper, Lila or Baby Nate?”

“Nate isn’t a baby, he is almost a preschooler. I don’t know why everyone is all of a sudden calling him that.” Realizing that he got off topic on a very important subject, Clint refocused on the matter at hand. Charlie was scared, and probably would always be. If training was something he could do to relieve his child of some fear, and at the same time form a relationship, then Clint didn’t see the harm in any of it.

Offering his hand, Clint guided the child back down to a seated position, before the stool swirled and she fell. “Listen to me, no one is going to take anyone.” Charlie did have a valid point. Even the Professor had said there would always be people wanting to get a hold of Charlie. Clint had taught Cooper and Lila basic defense techniques back at the farm. However, Charlie wasn’t asking to just be taught the simple stuff, like how to get out of a hold or just disable an attacker enough to be able to run away for help. He had even taught Cooper how to fire a gun, a lesson he had yet to get to with Lila. Charlie wasn’t asking for any of that. She wanted to learn how to be the one who attacked first. To be able to go into battle and be confident that she had a fighting chance of winning. That was all she wanted, a chance to survive. Clint knew sadly, without training, she didn’t have one if the wrong person got to her. Taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly, he hoped Kate wouldn’t kill him for what he was about to do. Choosing his words very carefully, he agreed. “But if you want me to teach you how to defend yourself, I will.”

“Really? You will?” Clint could see himself in her wide eyes as she stared at him in disbelief.

Clint returned the smile the girl gave him. It was the first time he had been able to make his daughter happy. Hopefully it was the first of many times it would happen. “I just said I would. So, I will.”

~~~

Kate was watching Tracy pack everything into her bag as the woman was speaking to her. “I don’t know the results from the last draw. I’m sure Mr. Stark does if you want to know. However, I would take it as a good sign since no one has requested for you to be brought back to medical.”

“I always take that as a good sign.” Kate explained knowing that odds were that everything was fine, since Hank didn’t wake them earlier with a phone call demanding she return to the school.

Picking up her bag, Tracy explained the day’s schedule. “I will be back at eleven.”

Kate snubbed the technician as she stifled a yawn. “I am a math teacher, I can add and tell time.” As soon as she said it, she knew it was rude. The woman was just doing her job. “Thank you, I appreciate it. See you at eleven.”

Kate followed Tracy out of the bedroom when she heard a sound that caused her ‘mommy senses’ to tingle. It was crying. Quickly dismissing Tracy, Kate zeroed in on the room that contained the distressed child, Nate. Opening the door, she found the toddler standing in the middle of the room with an equally upset Lucky sitting on his foot. “Good morning Nate.”

“Mommy? I want my mommy.” The red-faced child begged.

_And here we go._ Kate thought to herself.  She told Clint the other shoe would drop once Laura’s absence was noticed. “Oh honey, come to Kate.” The child ran over to her, desperate for some comfort after God knows how long he was standing in the room crying and looking for his mom.

Once in a somewhat familiar set of arms holding him, Nate asked, “Mommy?”

It was a horrible notion to even consider and Kate hated herself as soon as the thought came to her, but she knew the child would be all the better if he just forgot about his mother. Laura wasn’t the type of mother worthy of a child’s remembrance. She had used and abused the title. She had stolen the children of other women and had them call her ‘mom’. The HYDRA agent even went as far as having a child only to support her mission cover. The entire thing was nauseating to Kate. Nate was young, he would lose any recollections he had of Laura with time. Cooper had forgotten about Kate until the Professor harvested the early memories. She wasn’t a psychologist by any means, and never claimed to be. She figured the chances of Nate forgetting all about Laura were greater if they just didn’t talk about her. Not knowing if what she was doing was right or wrong, Kate just followed her maternal instincts and decided to never mention the HYDRA agent in the presence of the toddler ever again. If that meant that Kate had to take on the role herself, so be it. It was the young boy’s best shot of getting through all of this relatively unharmed. Standing up, Kate walked out of the bedroom. “Little man, how about you and I go get daddy?”

~~~

“When can we start?” Charlie excitedly asked. The girl was suddenly filled with all types of energy and couldn’t stand still. She was so thrilled about the prospects of her training.

Clint was once again refilling his cup, then he grabbed a bottled water for Charlie, since she was just about done with her own. He was seeing the effects of the caffeine in her actions. “I don’t know Charlie, but soon. I swear, soon.”

“Good morning.” Both father and daughter looked to the source and saw Kate making her way to them with Nate balanced on her hip and Lucky hopping down the steps. “Charlie, I need you to turn to something on the TV for Nate to watch please.”

Clint helped Charlie down and walked over to take Nate from Kate. With a light kiss to the lips as a proper way to start the day, he asked, “Care to explain why our daughter wakes up at five in the morning, drinks coffee, and watches the stock reports?”

Using her spy skills, Kate was able to exchange Nate for Clint’s coffee cup, all without her husband catching on in time for her to empty the mug in one gulp. “She likes it. I thought her math class was beneath her capabilities.  I asked the Professor to arrange a withdraw from my trust fund without making it look like any money was taken out. I gave it to her to play the stocks with to supplement the course. Nothing big, but Charlie got hooked. Doubled her money in a month. Eventually had her moved to a higher-level class, but she still does it every morning. All the earnings go into a savings account until she’s older. And as far as the coffee goes, its not like it is going to stunt her growth. She is only a few inches shorter than Cooper.”

Clint returned to the refrigerator to get Nate something to drink, Kate followed as he kept his voice low. “I wasn’t arguing about it. I just wanted to make sure she wasn’t playing me.”

“Oh Clint.” Kate commented as she refilled the cup for herself, the pity clear in her voice. “Charlotte parenting lesson one: she is always playing you.” Turning back to face him, she imparted her advice. “Just have to decide if it’s worth playing the game with her or not.”

“Just like her mother?” Clint observed with a hint of a raised eyebrow.

Kate filled another cup up for Clint and handed it to him. “Don’t seem to recall you complaining about her mother playing games last night.”

Clint let Nate down and pushed him gently into the living room to join his sister. Accepting the offered caffeine, he replied, “No ma’am, no complaints at all about last night.”

“What happened last night?” Charlie questioned from the couch.

Kate and Clint both said at the same time to their daughter, “Watch TV.”

Due to the ‘little ears’ around that had amazing hearing, Kate used lower tones to inform Clint of what had happened upstairs. “I found Nate crying for Laura this morning. I think he woke up scared and was looking for her.”

Clint looked away and dropped his head, lifting it back up to address the matter, “Pepper stayed with him all night long while Tony and I were with you at the school. I should have thought about it.”

“Well, it happened, and it is going to happen again and again before it’s all over. I think we need to get a baby monitor for his room. I am concerned that he was crying for a while before I got to him. I was talking with Tracy and didn’t hear him until I was in the hallway.”

Clint moved on with the agenda for the day. “We need to talk about schools today and get Lila and Cooper enrolled soon. I don’t like that they missed so much time. Also, we got to look at houses. If we see anything we want to go visit in person, we can grab a monitor while we’re out.”

Agreeing that it all was a priority, Kate started with her opinions on the matter of schooling. “I think private would be best. With all the changes, I feel it would be beneficial for everyone to limit the public exposure of the children as much as possible.”

“You sound like Pepper.” Clint reflected, since Pepper had said almost the exact same thing to him when she took up the task of collecting information from the various private schools in the area. “So, private it is, how soon can we get them in?”

“They have different needs Clint. Cooper needs a more technology centered curriculum and Lila needs more traditional and forced social interactions. I’m thinking an all-girl school is the right match for her.” Kate watched for a reaction from Clint at her suggestion. 

It wasn’t what he would have gone with for Lila, but Kate was the resident expert, so there had to be something to it. “You have some ideas?”

Grateful that Clint wasn’t going to fight her on the private or all-girls school, she carried that momentum into her explanation. “Yeah, a few. I’ve attended a few educational conferences over the years, and there was one school that I was thinking about perhaps duel enrolling Charlie in when she was a bit older. It’s only a few miles away from the Xavier school, and the security is astounding. A lot of older families and politicians send their daughters there, so it is a wonderful gateway to networking.”

“Not raising socialites Kate.” Clint was already disregarding Kate’s suggestion and was ready to ask her to go back looking for alternative schools. “Your parents did that with you and look what happened.”

“What?” Kate questioned, feeling defensive over the observation of her childhood. Clint was a hundred percent correct, but that didn’t give him the right to deny Lila an exceptional schooling that would meet her academic, social and emotional needs. “An excellent education and limitless resources to tap when the need arises? My priority is to give these children the tools that they will need in the world.”

“And Cooper?” Clint cautiously enquired, knowing that Kate was going to recommend some upper crust academy that would require his son to wear gray shorts with a matching blazer every day.

“There is an excellent technology and science intermediate school that partners with MIT. The downside is that odds are the waiting list is years long. I am hoping between Tony and myself, we will be able to pull some strings and get him a late enrollment slot. I think he will enjoy it immensely Clint. It will challenge him, something he would never have in state run education.”

“And allow him to meet the ‘right people’?” Clint finished for her, being able to read between the lines. “Tell me, how many senators and diplomats have their kids in this school?”

“It is very exclusive if that is what you mean.” Kate came back with in a wary tone, then attempted to justify her decision because she really didn’t want an argument over this. “Tony even attended for a short time before he surpassed the curriculum and went straight to MIT. Clint, I am not doing anything I wouldn’t have done ten years ago. New England Center of Technology and Science Intermediate has always been on my radar for Cooper. Even when we were in Brooklyn. Pepper must feel the same way, it was the top brochure on the pile of potential schools she selected.”

That got Clint’s attention. Exiting the kitchen, he reoccupied his chair across from the couch. “You never mentioned it before.”

Kate thought nothing of it. “Every parent has a ‘wish list’ for their kids. We all envision the perfect life for them and start planning as soon as we know the child is expected. It’s human nature. I would like to talk to Tony about it at some point today and see what we can do to get Cooper in.”

“Resources you can tap?” Clint asked seeing that Kate wasn’t going to provide any additional information on the ‘perfect life’ she had envisioned for Cooper that Clint failed to achieve in his time raising the boy with Laura. Kate was still mourning the lost time with her son and was mentally coping with it by picking up right where she left off, goodnight routines and prestigious schools that only a member of the Stark-Macintosh-Bishop family would attend. She was trying to make it all up to Cooper by giving him the best she could. Sam was correct, they were both grieving for the ‘death’ of their family a decade ago. Clint would have to give Kate a lot of rope on this one. The alternative had consequences that would just cause stress that she couldn’t afford during her recovery.

“Exactly.” She confirmed knowing that Clint wasn’t going to fight it.

“I’m going to a technology school?” Cooper asked out of nowhere. Clint and Kate were so deep in conversation that neither had heard Lila and Cooper come downstairs.

“Would you like that? Your Grandpapa attended. If your grandmother didn’t die when she did, which got me shipped off to Europe, I would have also.” Clint noticed the bitterness in Kate’s voice at the revelation to their son. Did she even know that Derek was dead? Should she be calling a lawyer or something? Clint put a hold on his thoughts and pushed it to the back of his mind to discuss with his wife at a later time. The list of ‘need to talk to Kate about later’ was growing by the minute.

Cooper seemed to come to life at that prospect. “Would I get to invent stuff and never have to read another novel for English class again?”

Leaning over the kitchen counter to address her family in the living room, Kate broke the bad news. “Yes to the inventing, no to the reading. While I will grant you, literature isn’t high on the school’s priority list, it is still on the list.” Kate said as she decided to inform her son just what having a teacher as a mother meant. “But don’t worry, if I feel you aren’t getting enough, I will pick you out something to read at home.”

“Yeah Cooper,” Clint taunted as he took another hit from his coffee, “you’re going to be a fancy lad.”

“Clint…” Kate warned.

Flaring his arms out dramatically and impressively not spilling a single drop of coffee onto the floor, he defended himself. “Ran away from the state home for boys and joined the circus. Remember that Kate? You know what we would’ve called someone like Cooper in the circus?” A remembrance which only got him an eyeroll and a head shake from Kate. “A mark, that’s what. You are making my son a mark.”

“Our son.” Kate corrected. “Then you teach him not to be one Clint.”

“What about me?” Lila questioned, somewhat fearful of the answer. She liked her old school and now she had to go to a new one. Unbeknownst to her, Kate recognized the fear the girl was experiencing. It was something she had also gone through at Lila’s age. Kate was preparing to tell her stepdaughter comforting reassurances about the many changes she had already gone through and the changes to come, but Clint decided to be an ass and make the entire thing a joke.

With a mocking tone, Clint told his daughter, “Oh you my girl will become a proper lady. Learn how to lift your pinkie when you drink tea, just like Kate.”

“You said I got to pick the schools.” Kate said in response to the borderline insulting comments Clint was making. This was a big change for the kids and needed to be handled delicately. “I am thinking about a respected nursery school for Nate that I have heard wonderful things about. However, that may take a while longer to finalize. Entrance into any prime nursery school is a battlefield. I may have to take someone out to get a spot.”

There was a brief moment in which Clint didn’t know if Kate was joking or not. Disregarding the declaration of a potential hit being taken out on some unsuspecting family that just happen to sign up their kid before Kate did was something he could and would worry about when there was a need to. The current dilemma was that Clint didn’t think he could honestly handle Nate going down the ‘elite’ path as well. “Damn it Kate, give me one kid, that’s all.”

Leaving the kitchen to go join Clint and the children, Kate threw at her husband as she crossed him to the couch. “I did give you one kid and you raised him on a farm in Iowa.”

In his best mid-western accent Clint said, “Well dagonit Kate, I thought as long as the crops were harvested, and the cows milked, the youngins’ were fine. They didn’t need no schoolin’.” Switching back to this regular voice, “Come on Kate, give me a break. They went to school and did great. I know it wasn’t on your ‘wish list’ for Cooper, but there is nothing wrong with the public-school system.”

Sitting down opposite him on the couch, so that they had eyes on all the kids. “I am not saying anything is wrong with it. Just that there are other schools that are a better match for the children’s specific needs.” Kate decided to play her trump card. “I don’t know why one child gets to receive a customized education and the other three have to settle for the status quo.”

Kate did have a point. There was always the possibility of resentment in this type of situation between siblings. Charlie being singled out, no matter the reason, could set up a rivalry between the children. “Fine, I already have one checking the stocks report in the morning, might as well make them all a part of the upper-class. However, and this is where I draw the line. They will not be spoiled, they will have chores, manners and respect for people. Not looking down on others. I want them to know what it feels like to earn something they want, not just be handed it.”

Knowing that she had won, she conceded to Clint’s wishes. “Fine, after school they go straight into the coal mine.”

Bored with the ’school talk’, Lila brought to the attention of the adults in the room who were now responsible for her wellbeing. “I’m hungry.”

“Did we promise Tony that we would eat downstairs this morning with the group?” Kate questioned Clint, not knowing which meal they were committed to sharing with Tony.

“Yeah we did.” Clint called to the room, “FRIDAY, are Tony and Pepper up and about yet this morning?”

The AI’s voice instantly responded. “Boss has been in the lab since three this morning. Miss Potts and Colonel Rhodes are downstairs in the communal area. Would you like me to pass along a message Agent Barton?”

“No thank you.” Clint responded, then spoke to Kate. “Want to send the kids down ahead of us?”

Catching what he was really asking her, with a clever smile she agreed with conditions.  “Leave time for me to get a shower afterwards, and I’m in.”

Getting up to pick up Nate, Clint handed the youngest to the oldest. “Cooper take your sisters and brother downstairs to your Grandpapa and start breakfast. We will be right down in about fifteen minutes.”


	41. Chapter Forty ~ Let Me Go

 

Chapter Forty

Let Me Go

Pepper and Rhodes’ morning conversation stopped abruptly when they heard Tony complaining as he entered the communal area of the compound. “So, that’s it? Everyone is moving out and leaving me here?”

Exchanging a quick glance with Pepper, Rhodey pointed out the inaccuracies of Tony’s statement. “I still live here, if you care.”

“Sorry.” Tony offered to his best friend, then filled him and Pepper in on the pretext for his comment. “Vision was just explaining to me that he will be staying with Wanda on campus.”

Addressing the group of three, Vision justified his needed absence from the compound. “Just until she becomes comfortable. I don’t believe she is in any danger, but she doesn’t know anyone there.”

“That’s sweet.” Pepper observed. She had come to the realization in the last few days to support the budding relationship with Wanda and Vision.

Continuing with his explanation Vision imparted his premise of how to secure Wanda’s success at the mutant school. “I feel that Professor Xavier’s teaching is an essential part of Wanda reaching her full potential, but she will be hesitant in an unfamiliar setting. Perhaps having someone she knows during the start will aid in escalating her progress.”

Shrugging his shoulders as he went to the breakfast bar to get a cup of coffee, Tony gave his blessing, if such a thing was needed by either Wanda or Vision. “If the Professor says it’s fine, then go ahead. But you know she wants to move in with Kate and Clint.” Then added as an afterthought, “Probably more so Clint then Kate. I am not positive, but I think Kate scares Wanda. If and when she does move in with them, I am doubtful that Clint will be as ‘accepting’ of your cohabitation with Wanda as the Professor will be. He does treat that girl like she is one of his own.” Tony had to slip in the hypocrisy of the archer under his breath. “Interesting, when it is anyone else’s daughter…”

All communication stopped when the children walked into the area. Tony noticed that the parental figures were missing. “Where are your parents?”

Cooper pointed up towards the ceiling. “Upstairs. Dad said he needed fifteen minutes. Then mom and him will come down. He said to stay with you and start breakfast.”

Knowing smiles and looks were exchanged around the room by the adults. Tony was the one to speak up on the parents’ gross mishandling of the use of others to supervise their children. “Seriously? They want me to watch you while they fu…”

Rhodes and Pepper stopped him before he could finish his observation. “Tony!”

“Sorry.” He offered chiding himself on almost cursing in front of the impressionable youth yet again.

The children were making their way to the breakfast bar. Lila turned and asked Tony, “While they what?”

Everyone stared at Tony to see how he would field this question. He dug the hole, now he had to climb out of it. Stammering through his lie as he sat down at the table, he informed the girl, “While they...fu…fu…Feng Shui.”

“What’s that?” She followed up with. Tony felt the headache building right behind his eyeballs. It wasn’t even seven o’clock in the morning and he was dealing with this.

Following Nate around the room while he chased the puppy since the environment had yet to be baby proofed, Pepper summed up the concept, both to help Tony and for the understanding of the young children. “It is when you move around furniture to where you want it to be to feel happy.”

“Oh.” Lila said as she looked to Charlie.

Charlie nodded at her sister. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Everything in Tony’s brain was telling him to let the subject drop. It would be in everyone’s best interest to just move on. But the shared glance between the sisters had him too curious. “It does?”

Charlie held her glass out for Cooper to fill up with juice as she explained. “Yeah, they must not have liked where the bed was, because they were up all night moving it.”

Rhodey had just filled his mouth up with coffee when the Barton girls shared their innocent interpretation that they had attached to Clint and Kate’s activities last night. The mouth full of liquid was spat out a least four feet across the room and all over the glass dining table causing Tony to flinch back in his seat to avoid being hit. Vision made his way swiftly over and started to smack Rhodes’ back, to relieve the coughing man. Calling over to where Cooper was helping the shorter siblings reach for things on the high counter, Vision directed, “Cooper, why don’t you take your sisters out on the verandah to eat this morning? It is a beautiful day already and you can take Lucky with you. I will help Nate with his plate and meet you out there.”

“Sure.” Cooper said as he repressed yet another moment in his life, his sisters overhearing his parents having sex. However, watching his grandfather with pursed lips as he looked up to the ceiling in an effort not to say something about what Charlie just revealed and Pepper’s red face as she attempted to overcome a laugh made him feel a lot better about the situation. “But if you want to keep Charlie being the only one of us not in therapy, you will let her continue to believe that they were redecorating their room.” He hollered as he ushered his sisters outside. “Just a suggestion.”

“Thank you Cooper. I will take that under consideration.” Tony yelled back dryly, but the boy was already out of ear shot. Returning to his normal volume, “I think I need therapy after that.”

“Come on, they are adults, married and have been separated for ten years.” Rhodes explained as he was leaning over the table, cleaning up what he had spit out. “What did you think they were going to do last night, play cards?”

Pepper had Nate on her hip following Vision, who was holding the child’s plate and dishing out the items that the child pointed to from the food selection that was laid out. Looking away from the toddler to speak to Rhodey, “I said the exact statement to him when this all started. Don’t let Tony fool you, he gets it.”

“I get it alright, but does it have to be thrown in my face every two seconds that Barton is banging my daughter?”

“Tony?!” Pepper exclaimed at his use of language in front of Nate.

“He’s three, he doesn’t know what I’m talking about.” Stark defended. Just then the elevator indicated that the car had stopped on their floor. As the doors open, Clint and Kate entered the room. Each sporting what appeared to be towel dried hair. Lifting his watch Tony noted matter-of-factly, “Well, it has been two seconds.”

“Two seconds for what?” Kate asked sitting down as she put her hair into a pony tail. Clint didn’t even react to any of it, just passed them to the food.

Shaking his head, Tony answered, “Don’t worry about it. However, if any of the kids ask, you and Clint were up all-night redecorating your bedroom. You know, Feng Shui. Some…things were overheard and shared with the class this morning.”

Clint stopped what he was doing, and cautiously scanned the room. He didn’t want to know, but knew he needed to know what his children had told the adults before he came down. “They heard us…redecorating?”

“Barton is banging.” Nate repeated to his father. With a disapproving glance thrown at Tony, who Clint knew was the source of his youngest’s remarks, he reached out to Pepper to take his child from her.

“Any other questions Clint?” Rhodey asked with a sly smile.

Clearing her throat, Kate moved on. “Where are the children?”

Pepper moved her head towards the patio. “Outside eating, Vision was going to go sit with them. We were just getting Nate taken care of.”

Standing up, Kate walked over to the breakfast bar where Clint was holding out yet another cup of coffee for her to take. Accepting the cup and at the same time sending Clint a concerned look about what they had walked in on, he handed her Nate as well. With her stepson secured and Vision following with the toddler’s food, she took her leave from the group. “I think I will go join them.”

Returning to her own seat that she vacated when the children came down, Pepper placed the discarded napkin back onto her lap. “I’m surprised everyone is up this early. I thought that with all the ‘excitement’ of the past week, you all would sleep until noon.”

Using the tongs to put two sausage links onto his plate, Clint summed up the morning to his audience with as few words as possible. “Kate and I were woken up by medical. Charlie apparently wakes up to watch ‘London open’ at five. Nate had a panic moment about thirty minutes later, and Lila and Cooper were up before six.”

Slightly alarmed by the youngest’s wake up call, Tony probed for further information. “A panic moment?”

Letting out a sigh, as he moved around the breakfast buffet, Clint explained it in simple terms, not really wanting to go into too much detail on the still sore subject. “Woke up wanting Laura.”

“Poor thing, it will probably happen until he works Laura out of his ‘routine’.” Pepper delicately phrase as she sympathized over the brim of her cup before taking a sip.

“That’s what Kate said.” Clint agreed as he sat down at the table with Rhodes, Pepper and Tony. “She wants to go out and get a baby monitor for his room, so we can keep tabs on him.”

“You don’t have to go out.” The new grandfather offered. “I’m sure I can whip something up in the lab.”

Not knowing if Kate would still want to go and purchase a ‘baby cam’ even with Tony’s offer, Clint acknowledged the gift. “Thank you.”

“Clint are you alright?” Rhodes asked sensing that Clint was using shorten sentences to avoid discussion of a deeper issue.

Resigned to the fact that a simple ‘I’m fine’ would not be accepted. Clint clued the small group in on the thoughts that haunted his mind. “Nate this morning, him wanting Laura. Feels like déjà vu but it isn’t because I didn’t know before that it was happening. I know that doesn’t make sense.” He stopped as he searched for the words that would clear up the abstract concept. “It’s just that I don’t know which is worse, a child crying for his mother or a child not crying for his mother because he knows she’s not coming back.” Sitting back in his chair, Clint focused on the salt and pepper shaker that were placed at the center of the table. “I just keep remembering the first night at the farm after the wipe. Cooper crying for his mommy and me not understanding that he wanted Kate. Looking back, it kills me what that kid went through and how I didn’t know the pain my child was in. But I know it now, with Nate.”

There was silence around the table as everyone absorbed the conundrum Clint had presented. Pepper spoke up, not to give Clint an answer, but an attempt of relieving him of some of the burden he would forever carry over his ignorance of his eldest child’s crisis in the early days after the wipe. “Clint, you didn’t have any control over that.”

“I know I didn’t.” The archer responded, however, even as he spoke the words, he knew no one believed him. Hell, Clint didn’t believe himself. He had spent the better part of any downtime over the last few days replaying every moment of his first days at the farm. Hindsight was always twenty-twenty, looking back he could plainly see the confusion and fright in his son’s eyes at the unfamiliar environment and people. “It just doesn’t make the memories any easier because I can also remember coming back after Lila was born, and Cooper being fine with Laura. In those few weeks, he had accepted that Kate wasn’t coming back and eventually forgot all about her. I’m struggling now because I know that is what is going to happen with Nate, and I don’t know how to feel about it.”

“I would assume it would be best for everyone if he did forget her.” Tony advised wishing that a rug could be thrown to cover up Laura’s role in the Barton family, but recognized deep down that such a thing wasn’t possible.

“But Lila won’t.” Clint came back with, staring Tony right in the eyes. “What if Nate starts calling Kate ‘mom’, what will that do to Lila? How do I explain it when Nate asks me why everyone calls Kate ‘mom’ but Lila?”

“I don’t know the answer to that Clint. I don’t even know if there is one.” Rhodes started knowing the family’s healing would take years to accomplish, if ever. “I know you probably have a lot of regrets about this, but you can’t think about it. You can’t obsess on the ‘what ifs’, just take it as it comes.”

“I can’t regret this.” Clint said in a low volume as if he was ashamed of his confession and truthfully, he was. Amplifying his volume, he explained, “I know that this sounds crazy and maybe it is. I would never say this in front of Kate, but I can’t regret any of this. The wipe gave me Lila and Nate. If I wished it all away, I wouldn’t have them.”

Putting down his fork with a loud ‘tink’ sound upon impact with the plate, Tony leaned back in his seat. It was obvious he was annoyed with Clint’s remarks. “You’re right, it does sound crazy. The wipe may have given you Lila and Nate, but it took from you Charlie and Kate.”

“But I have them all now.” Clint didn’t want to argue over this, He knew that in the small time Tony had become very protective over Kate and Charlie. He could only imagine if one of his daughter’s husband said to Clint what he had just said to Tony. He would probably kill the man right on the spot. Clint had been charged with the task of merging two families into one. One family that was fake from the start, but he had spent more time with than the real one. Then there was the real family that he had planned with his true wife. The wipe had happened, and now they were Clint and Kate, along with four children. That was the real world. Like Sam had told him, Clint had been living in a fantasy world of picking up with Kate right where they left off, him kissing her 'good luck’ as she left to hack the Sandbox server. Letting go of the fantasy was easier said than done, but Clint hoped that eventually he would find the real world just as wonderous as the fantasy.  This morning was all the evidence that he needed to keep that hope alive. “I can’t wish away the events that led to this morning. My entire family together in the living room. It was surreal, we were arguing, joking, bonding, being a family. I actually had a half an hour alone with Charlie before Kate and Nate came down. It was incredible. She is such an amazing girl. Everything she has been through and she has a smile on her face at five in the morning.”

Pepper smiled at the thought of the family getting along and hoped the image lessened Tony’s displeasure with the topic. “That is wonderful Clint.”

Any notion of Pepper’s that Tony would move on were diminished with his take away from Clint’s heartfelt confession. “You and Kate fighting again?”

Allowing the offense to show on his face to Tony’s question, Clint replied in a very defensive tone. “No, not fighting. We were just strongly debating Kate’s school choices for the children.”

“Oh, did you decide?” Pepper asked thanking the good Lord that they can move on in the subject matter.

Clint used his time chewing his breakfast prior to swallowing to search his memory for the school’s Kate had selected. “Um, some MIT middle school for Cooper, and an all-girl one for Lila.”

“New England Tech?” Pepper offered.

“Are you guys really thinking about sending him there?” Any ill feelings Tony was holding against Clint were release with the mention of the possibility of his grandson attending his alma mater. “I have a thousand contacts there, he could start today if you wanted him to. I just never thought to suggest it because I assumed you would nay say it.”

“Well, since it has apparently been a school Kate has wanted for Cooper since the pregnancy test showed two lines.” Clint said with unpleasantness in his voice, then allowed the veil of secrecy about the early years of Kate and his’ relationship to fall a little. “Which may I add was news to me, but it wasn’t like she was sharing information back then. I wasn’t around when she was making all these plans for Cooper in the beginning. Kate told me this morning that she has always had her heart set on the school, and I’m not going to be the one to tell her ‘no’.”

Rhodes had made an effort not to ask Clint a lot of personal questions, everyone else was doing that just fine without any of his help. However, Kate was his best friends’ daughter, and the wife of another teammate. The questions the Colonel had in his head were too many to count. They already knew why Clint wasn’t involved with Charlie, but the man now admitting that he was absent as well with Cooper was causing a lot of curiosity. Clint had earlier enlightened the group to a memory the Professor had given him from Cooper about when Kate told Clint about her pregnancy with Charlie. The memory shared also revealed the impression that Clint didn’t handle the news of Cooper’s pending arrival particularly well. “Why weren’t you?”

Swallowing a mouth full of scramble eggs, Clint bobbed his head side to side thinking of how to summarize the tale. “Long story, but Kate decided to keep Cooper a secret for a while. And by a while, I mean months, surprisingly without anyone catching on.” Clint got caught up in another case of ‘hindsight is twenty-twenty’ from thirteen years ago when everything was revealed. All these years later and it still nagged him. How did he not know she was pregnant for five months? Wasn’t like he wasn’t with her then, just wasn’t as observant in his personal life as he was in his professional one. Looking back on the event, it was very obvious. “She didn’t do it to hide the pregnancy forever, just delayed disclosing that pretty important information until she finished up some work stuff. A pregnancy would have taken her off active duty, and she was very involved with a mission profile that she wanted to see to completion.”

“The shitstorm?” Tony questioned recalling Clint’s comment two days ago about his oldest son. _“You call it a shitstorm, we called it Cooper.”_

Chuckling at the reference that only he and Tony understood, Clint described the mission profile that Kate went to incredible lengths to achieve. “Yup, standard mission procedure is a medical evaluation on all team members prior to deployment. Kate cloaked her file, so she would be ‘green lit’ for combat. In her defense she wasn’t in any danger, but predictions posed the possibility of her encountering hostiles. Nothing she couldn’t handle, even in her condition. Anyway, long story short, someone in systems caught the cloak and notified Fury.”

Tony thought and kept to himself the ugly remark that he would say against the fact that Clint once again, withheld information that the group should have known. The fact that Kate had a history of messing with her medical files would have been a wonderful thing to know before yesterday. Yes, Clint did allude to it, but the details were what would have been nice to have. “What did Fury do?”

“Right over comms, Nick told me to, and I quote, ‘grab Bishop and get her ass on the jet’. I asked why, and he told me. That was how I found out I was going to be a dad, a group communication line during an active mission." With a huge smile on his face at the memory Clint went on to explain how bad the situation had gotten. “Like I said, it was a group feed, so Kate heard the command as well. She knew she was made. Kate escalated her part of the mission knowing that I was coming for her. Mission was completely compromised, because now there were two senior agents running around a HYDRA base not following the mission objectives.”

The visual Clint painted was very entertaining to Tony. Two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents running around a base as one was trying to catch the other bared a striking resemblance to a Tom and Jerry cartoon for him. “My God, that is a shitstorm.”

“Yeah it was.” Clint agreed. “Ultimately found Kate and she, of course, tried to talk her way into me letting her complete her part of the mission. Needless to say, I refused her request. We got into it and everyone on comms heard it. I still remember hearing Nick laughing at everything we shouted at one another. Finally, I had enough and just grabbed Kate and threw her over my shoulder. I carried her out of the base kicking and screaming at me all the way to the jet. About four months later, we had Cooper.”

Happy that the conversation had taken a more uplifting tone, Pepper observed in a joking manner, “Hiding a pregnancy for five months, she must have been very invested in her work. However, it explains the stubbornness, attitude and resistance to authority that Kate displayed as proof that Charlie…”

“Is a hundred percent her mother’s daughter?” Clint finished for her. “Don’t get me wrong, I see a lot of myself in her, her temper, the way she strategizes before she acts, her nervous energy, that’s all me. Then you have the way she is always looking for an angle, seeing how far she can push someone, and constantly trying to figure people out, that’s all her mom.”

“A dangerous combination.” Rhodes commented as he drained his mug.

Matching the War Machine’s gesture, Clint declared right before he drank, “Oh, the world has no idea what is coming at them.”

At the mention of the dangerous combination that had resulted in Charlotte Barton, her mother appeared from outside and interrupted, “Hey Clint, the kids are done eating and are now just playing. Charlie wants to show Vision what her abilities are. However, apparently, she needs your approval before? Something about ground rules and toilet paper. What is it with you and the toilet paper? Do you have some unresolved issues from childhood or something?”

Clint wiped his mouth off with his napkin and placed it on his plate. Standing up he went over to Kate and whispered, “I told you to drop the toilet paper thing.”

Rolling her eyes, Kate came back with, “And here we are talking about it again. Did you really tell her she couldn’t use any? Also, why are you making up rules for her without speaking to me first?”

“I never said she couldn’t use toilet paper.” Looking behind him, Clint found that his last comment rewarded him with the full attention of the room. Speaking to everyone for clarification sake, “I said she couldn’t make any, you know, with her powers. Not that she couldn’t use it.”

“What if?”

Cutting her off, because he knew where this conversation was heading. “Kate, please don’t. I have already been through this with Charlie. I will go talk to her.”

Watching Clint leave outside to a have a chat which Kate could only guess was going to be awkward for all the participants as Clint explained to Charlie that he had not forbidden her the use of toilet paper. Kate turned to Tony. “As much as I would love to see Clint try to deal with that, I have stuff to do. Can I borrow a car?”

Putting his right elbow on the table, Tony rested his head in his hand and look to his daughter. “I don’t know Katherine, what time will you be back? Who are you going with? Do I know them, and do I have their parents’ phone number in case of emergency?”

Picking up a half piece of toast from Clint’s plate, Kate took a bite. “You are so funny. I need to go up to the school for an hour or so.”

Tony paused before he replied. Kate had just gotten here and now she wanted to go back to the school? “Hank said you didn’t have to go back until tomorrow.”

“I wanted to talk to the Professor, and I don’t think Hank would mind seeing me today. He would hate for me to have to make the same trip twice.” Kate turned to see Clint reenter the room from behind her. He was still shaking his head, clearly the result of a very short confrontation with their daughter.

Tony wasn’t completely sure what game was being played here by Kate. She asked to go to the school once Clint left the room. Was she actually going to make an effort yet again to go behind his back regarding her medical condition? She couldn’t be that stubborn, could she? She was Tony’s daughter, so that pretty much answered the question for him without the need to verbally pose it. He decided to clue Clint in on what was going on without just bluntly stating it. “Oh yeah Kate, we would all hate for you to have to drive fifteen minutes up the road and back twice in two days. You know what some people call that? A commute Kate. But I understand, that would be a total hassle. You should just see if Hank can fit you in today to avoid that annoyance of doing it tomorrow as well.”

Reaching past Kate to grab his plate to add to his collection of the kid’s used ones, Clint informed his wife, “If you are going to see Hank, then I’m coming with you.”

Throwing her head back in frustration she declared, “I can handle a quick check up all by myself.”

“That is a trust you have to earn back Kate.” Clint evenly stated as he was at the sink rinsing off the plates to put in the dishwasher, looking up he added, “Also we can look at houses while we’re out. Two birds, one stone.”

Sitting down at the end of the table with her back to the kitchen and Clint, Kate calmly threw a comment over her shoulder at her husband, “Not going to win this one, am I?”

“Best to just accept it now and we can get going.” Addressing Pepper and Tony, Clint asked, “You guys alright with the kids? I know I have been taking advantage of it lately, but this should be the last time.”

“It’s not a problem Clint.” Pepper guaranteed before Tony could say anything to counter it. “You have to take Kate to her doctor. I believe I speak for everyone when I say we would all feel more comfortable with someone accompanying her to the appointment. Definitely something you don’t want to drag four kids to. You should take advantage of the additional hands while you can.”

It was a question that Tony didn’t want to ask, but the concept had been plaguing him since the last time he was in Dr. McCoy’s office. “Does you seeing Hank mean that you have come to a decision?”

“Decision about what?” Kate asked not knowing what Tony was referring to. Gesturing with the small bit of toast that she had left, she waved off the concern. “It is just going to be a checkup, Hank already has my labs. Ten minutes tops.”

“Really, it’s been what less than twenty-four hours and you have already forgotten?” Tony asked in total disbelief over Kate’s response to his very serious question. “If someone gave me the choice between life and death, you can be damn sure I would remember it.”

“Oh that, don’t worry about that.” Kate disregarded the topic with a smile and a shake of her head. “That was just Hank being dramatic. He things it gets to me. The Professor and Hank know what my wishes are, he just wanted me to verbalize it in front of Clint. They know what to do when there is a need to do something.”

Clint, hearing that Kate was being nonchalant over a grave discussion that Tony was attempting, decided to get involved. If Kate had ‘wishes’ regarding her situation, he should know them. Really, everyone should know them and be on the same page. Taking the seat to her right so he could see Tony across the table, Clint countered Kate’s argument, “Well your husband and father don’t.”

Casting her eyes down onto the glass table, Kate reached behind her head and scratched the area where her neck met her head. Clint already knew that Kate did that when she was uncomfortable or feeling overwhelmed, and Tony was learning through experience what the gesture meant. The last thing anyone wanted was to stress her out, but it was vital information that they needed her to tell them. Looking back up, Kate folded her arms and leaned onto her elbows and spoke directly to Tony. “Listen, make no mistake about it, I wan to live. Whatever science can do to help that, I will gladly take.” Kate then turned her head to Clint. “However, and let me make myself crystal clear on this, I want to live, not just survive. Do you understand the difference?”

“I think I do.” Tony said breaking the silence that fell after Kate’s testimony. “The first batch of medicine we made would have kept you alive, but you would be unconscious. The sedative effect of the chemical’s make-up could not be altered. We had to create something without many of the chemicals that were a ‘sure thing’ to keep you breathing.”

“That is surviving, not living. Just because the machines may indicate that I am alive, that doesn’t mean I’m living. I do not ever want that. If there isn’t any hope of me walking out of the hospital room to resume living my life, then stop, let me go.” She looked to Clint and repeated, “Let me go.” Clint looked down and nodded his head. He understood and would do what she asked. Kate shifted to Pepper and Tony. “It’s what I want, and I don’t think I am asking for anything you all wouldn’t ask for yourselves if you were in my position.”

“I think you’re right.” Rhodes said, speaking up for the first time in a while not knowing his place in the family discussion. “In your position, I would want the same thing.” At that confession, small nods were made by the other three people at the table. Kate mouthed a simple ‘thank you’ to Rhodey which he returned with a smile.

Tony wanted to know what Kate’s choice was, and she had told him. As difficult as acting on her wishes would be when the time came, he would have to stand by Clint’s side and give all his strength to the archer as he followed through on his promise to let her go. Understanding now part of Kate’s reason for going to the school, he inquired to the reason for the second part. “Needing to speak with the Professor, does that by chance have anything to do with the new job offer?”

Pleased to be on another subject that wasn’t centered around her impending death, Kate stood up and motioned to Clint for them to get moving. Speaking to Tony to answer his question, “It actually does, more administrative duties than teaching. Want to walk us to the car and I can fill you in?”

Standing up to join the pair, Tony remarked, “Sounds like the only way I am ever going to figure out what is going on around here. Pepper, you’re on grandparent duty, I’ll be right back.”


	42. Chapter Forty-One ~ Revive

 

Chapter Forty-One

Revive

~~~

Six Months Later

Tony leaned back into the limo’s soft Corinthian leather seat as he pondered the last six months and what had transpired to bring them all to this point. Six months, that’s half a year. It had only been half a year since the wipe’s reversal and Tony couldn’t remember his life before being anything but what it was now. Life had fallen into a simple routine in the last few months. He would go into the office sometimes if Pepper needed him, but most of his time was spent at the Avengers’ compound and messing around in his lab. The day that he looked forward to all week was Tuesday. On Tuesdays, Lila and Cooper had therapy at the compound for security purposes. The kids had possibly been privy to top secret information from their parents and required a secure location to speak freely with a therapist. Tony was responsible on those days to pick up both children from their respective schools and bring them to the sessions.

Pepper in her new role of soon-to-be-step-grandparent of four, realized the struggle that working parents faced on a day-to-day basis of child care and the financial burden that went along with it. In an effort to remedy that burden for Stark Industries employees, she established a nursery and preschool within the corporate headquarters. She filled it with a staff that would rival any of the personnel at the prestigious schools that Kate had contemplated murder for in order to secure Nathaniel a spot in. Nate was the first child enrolled at the S.I. school, and Pepper loved having him at work with her. She would force herself to take breaks throughout the day to go to the school and spend time with him. Sometimes she would sit in on story time or recess. When Tony was in the building, he would join them. Again, only on Tuesdays, Pepper would leave work early and bring Nate to the compound with her just in time for the last child to finish their therapy appointment.

Clint used Tuesday evenings to work with Charlie on her ‘daddy activity’. With three of his four children under proper supervision, he was able to give Charlie his undivided attention and carve out two hours just for her. On Tuesday evenings, the training room at the Avengers’ compound was closed to everyone from four to six o’clock. This was so Clint could train with Charlie without an audience. The father and daughter relationship had made incredible strides since they started. For Tony, without a doubt, the best part of Tuesdays was at six-thirty when everyone sat down and ate dinner together. When Kate was able to, she made every effort to attend, but work kept her busy for the most part.

Tony was actually loving his life for the first time ever. His family was doing well. The therapy had made a huge difference with the children. There was still a lot of work to be done, but they had adjusted to their new lives and family better than expected. There was even a noticeable change in Clint as well from his own sessions on Thursdays. It wasn’t anything that Clint said that gave Tony that impression, but how the man walked and interacted with his family. Clint just appeared to have his head in a better place, and it had a ripple effect on the entire family.

There was just one more matter on the agenda that Tony had set forth to truly blend his family, his wedding to Pepper. They had agreed to leak it to the press that the nuptials would take place on August the twenty-seventh, but in reality, they were doing it a week before on the twentieth. He knew that he would have to field multiple questions today about the wedding that had already been dubbed ‘the wedding of the century’. He could see the crowds of reporters that had gathered on the sidewalk as Happy slowly brought the car to a stop.

“Are you ready for this?” Pepper asked with an emotionless face, probably done in order to keep Tony’s own emotions in check.

Exhaling a heavy sign as he prepared his ‘game face’ for the cameras, “Of course I am. This has been a long time coming. Six months of planning and now it’s happening. Sort of surreal.”

With that, Tony’s side of the limo was opened first. Stepping out he was met with cameras taking his picture and too many voices shouting out questions for him to clearly understand. He walked over to the right side of the car where Happy was assisting Pepper out on the sidewalk. Tony took her hand as the couple waved jointly at the crowd.

One reporter separated herself from the group and put a microphone in his face. “Mr. Stark, how do you feel about he unanimous vote from the Senate on the confirmation of the President’s nominee?”

Taking the device from the reporter, Tony read off the script Pepper had forced him to memorize. “I am beyond thrilled that everyone sees the merit in the nominee and acted in the best interest of the country.”

Another member of the press butted in as Tony was handing the microphone back to the original reporter. “After today, will all your focus be on planning the wedding?”

Pepper fielded the question, as she rightly should, because she was in full control over the wedding preparations. All Tony was required to do was get fitted for a tux, stay sober until afterwards, and show up to the event on time. “We have been planning all along for the wedding and left the planning of today to the Department of Mutant Affairs, especially the Secretary’s staff.”

The first reporter took back the stage. “Mr. Stark, how do you feel about the swearing in ceremony occurring on the steps of Capitol Hill as opposed to the traditional ceremony at the department?”

“You know me, the bigger the better.” Pepper shot him a look that Tony easily knew to mean that he needed to keep to the prepared remarks and hold off any improvisations until later, if even then. “In this particular case, I believe it was the administrations’ intention to show that they acknowledge the importance of this position and its effects of legislation at an international level. There hasn’t been a Secretary in years and while that post was vacated there were a few events, we all know what I am referring to, that may have been avoided had there been someone to mediate.”

“Would you call yourself an advocate for mutants’ rights now?” The journalist followed up with.

Tony had released a press statement immediately following the confirmation along with an official announcement on behalf of what was left of the Avengers. The announcement of the appointment of a new Secretary along with the United Nations’ declaration that the Avengers as a whole would fall under the label of ‘enhanced’, prompted the need for the statements. Paraphrasing from his original press release, Tony answered, “My granddaughter is a mutant, and I will advocate and protect her until my dying breath, as I would for any child, mutant or not. My involvement is not what is important here, the world’s involvement is the priority. Originally it was only the Avengers that were under the Sokovia Accords. The entire document was created to ‘handle’ the team and to take liability for the consequences of the Avengers’ actions off the governments of the world.”

Turning to Pepper, Tony knew he couldn’t stick to the script much longer. Perhaps the reporter was correct, he was an advocate now for the mutant population. Maybe it was the guilt he still carried years later after pushing through and backing the primary Sokovia Accords, resulting in people he considered friends to be imprisoned or on the run. Whatever the reason, he needed to get it all out. “There wasn’t even a mention of mutants in the first legislation. Briefly the term ‘enhanced’ was used but it was in connection to specific people affiliated with the Avengers. However, as time went on, the definition of ‘enhanced’ became grander by both the State Department here in America and the United Nations. It was no longer a label attached to a specific person, but a generic tag for anyone that the committee felt the need to put under their thumb.”

The pool of reporters went wild, yelling follow-up questions and typing on their phones and other devices the sound bites and quotes Tony just gave them. Pushing on with his rant and explanation, “A lot of countries accepted the widened definition and more than the original hundred and seventeen countries the signed the Accords consented as well. Signed and sealed, due to fear of ‘ghost stories’ that certain people told them about enhanced and mutant individuals wreaking havoc on an internationals scale. They gave in and signed without a voice from the mutant or enhanced community. They were never permitted to speak their piece. They were the population that was most greatly impacted, all without a say, and that was wrong. They need a voice, and advocate, someone willing to take on the fight. That is what today is about. Giving a voice to the minority that will one day be the majority. “Enhanced and ‘mutant’ are just the mystical names that someone has applied to a person who made it to the next level of evolution before the rest of us did. I say, ‘don’t hate, embrace’. At the end of his comments Tony flashed the ‘peace’ sign and directed Pepper away from the reporters even as they were still shouting questions at the pair.

When there was enough distance between them and the reporters, Pepper asked, “Do you feel better now that you got that off your chest?”

Nodding as they continued to walk, “I do, thank you.”

“You know there will be even more reporters near the stage, right?” Pepper warned as she reached into her purse and produced two passes that would grant them access to the main stage area.

Grabbing one of the passes from her and clipping it onto his lapel, tony had to agree. “Yes, but they are mostly after the photo opportunities, not so much the comments.”

Stepping up the stairs and flashing the passes to the Secret Service agents that were posted at the entrance, Tony stopped to look out over the Mall of Washington D.C. It was a moment he wanted to forever remember, savor every part of the day. Since most of the X-Men were also staff at the Xavier school and invited to the ceremony, the school had designed a field trip for the students to attend the occasion. While the X-Men would be seated on the stage, all the students were in the first two rows in the audience. Seemed appropriate since they were the ones most affected by today’s events. The crowd filled the Mall. Some had posters about mutant rights and such. He noticed a group taped off to the left of protesters with police officers patrolling. What they were protesting, Tony didn’t know but could only assume it was against the mutants and the events of today.

“Taking it all in?” A voice called behind him. Turning he found Natasha standing there with Steve and Sam beside her. Wilson and Rogers were in nice black suits. Sam had a gray shirt under his jacket with a metallic silver tie, while Steve was practically dressed in the American flag. The Captain had a blue shirt serving as a background to a red and white striped tie. If Tony didn’t know Steve, he would assume the man was a politician from the patriotic attire. Natasha was wearing a simple form fitted black knee length dress with three quarters sleeves, something Tony assumed she would dress in for attending a funeral instead of a swearing in ceremony. Looking at her he realized that she didn’t want the attention on her dress, but the jewelry was what she wanted the focus to be on. She had simple gold stud earrings, but around her neck delicately hung a thin gold chain. The chain attached to each end of an ornament placed right where her neck ended, and her chest started, a small arrow.

The press went crazy at the photo opts that were possible with four of the Avengers present on the stage. It was time for the ‘dog and pony’ show to start. Extending his hand, Tony shook with Sam and Steve and gave Natasha a half hug and peck on the cheek. The press was eating it up and shouting questions and remarks at them.

“Are the Avengers reunited now?” Yelled one.

Laughing at the question, Tony replied, “Let’s make the team legal, then we can discuss getting the band back together.”

A man that Tony recognized from CNN asked, “Captain Rogers, is it true that you and your team are going to sign the revised Sokovia Accords now that you had a hand in the alterations?”

Trying to find the correct words that would keep the spotlight on the nominee and not the Avengers, Steve generalized, “I am very grateful to the confirmed Secretary nominee for asking for input from all affected parties during the revision process. Today may be the official start date for the Secretary’s term, but the department and nominee have been working tirelessly for months in an unofficial capacity.”

Another question was fired at Steve. “Will you be speaking today as the rumors imply?”

Tony stepped in to handle that question. “No spoilers here folks. You are going to have to sit through all the speeches just like us to see what happens.” He then cupped Pepper’s elbow and escorted her to their seats in the second row of chairs set to the left of the podium where their names were displayed in bold text against a white background taped to the seat.

Pepper placed her hands behind her knees to smooth down her skirt as she sat. When she was about half way down, she bolted up and pointed. “There’s Clint and the kids.”

Tony looked in the direction she was pointing and sure enough, there was Clint helping Nate up the stairs with one hand and had a death grip on Charlie’s upper arm with the other. Cooper and Lila were walking behind him. It took a moment for Tony to realized why Clint had such a tight hold on Charlie. The girl was trying to break free and go to her classmates down in the front rows of the audience.

“Charlotte Barton, get over here and stop making your father’s life difficult please.” Tony yelled over to his granddaughter. “You can play with your friends afterwards.”

In a pre-teen whine, Charlie challenged her grandfather since she hadn’t been able to convince her father, “Why can’t I be with the school down there?”

“Because you have a seat up here.” Tony answered pointing to the seat in front of him that had her name on it. “Where’s Kate?”

“Doing ‘Kate-stuff’.” Clint said casually as he directed the three older children to their seats and stood in front of Charlie to block any escape attempt. It hadn’t taken long for Clint to get a handle on his oldest daughter and develop several managing skills to deal with her. “The Professor grabbed her, so I decided to get the kids up here and situated before it becomes too chaotic.”

“Good call.” Tony observed as he watched all four of the children taking in the grandness of their situation.

Seeing that Clint had his hands full and Kate was nowhere in sight, Pepper bent over the chair in front of her to speak to Nate. “Do you want to sit with me?”

“Daddy, I sit with Peppy?”

“Sure buddy, but just until we start.” Clint said as he picked up Nate and passed him over the row of seats, into the arms of his soon-to-be step grandmother.

Natasha had seen the Bartons enter and was slowly making her way over to them. The problem was that every few steps, there was someone that wanted a picture with her. Every politician in the country had found a way to get a seat on the dais for today’s event. Add in the Avengers, the X-Men, family, and good friends, it was very crowded. Finally getting to Clint, the pair embraced and traded simple greetings.

“Nate, you are wearing a little suit.” Natasha exclaimed as she pulled out her cellphone to get a picture. Cooper and Nathaniel were dressed the same, a black suit with a navy shirt and black tie. Clint matched his sons, but his tie was black with a navy diamond pattern embroidered onto it.

Lila and Charlie were dressed also in the black and navy color scheme. Each of the girls were in navy dresses. Lila’s flared out under the black sash that tied into a bow in the back at her waist. The dress had the look and feel of ‘princess’. Charlie’s was more fitted with a black belt around the upper torso. After the announcements of the Secretarial appointment and the Avengers reclassification, information on the close friends and family of the members became a much sought-after item. Keeping Charlie a secret wasn’t an option any longer, not with attention on both the Avengers and X-Men. Also, it wasn’t needed with the HYDRA threat as good as eliminated. The child could live her life openly and free of being confined to the limits of the Xavier school’s grounds. The media went crazy with the news that Tony Stark had a daughter, and that daughter had a family of her own. It only heightened when it was revealed that Tony’s daughter was married to a member of the Avengers and taught at the Xavier school that her own mutant daughter was enrolled in. The press had formed the opinion in recent months that the Barton girls were fraternal twins, and no one had seen a reason to correct that assumption. The fact that Clint’s marriage to Laura was never legal or documented was a public relation department’s dream come true. No one in the media was aware of any ‘breaks’ in Clint and Kate’s marriage. To support that deceit was the lack of any official records, other than what S.H.I.E.L.D. and Professor Xavier created regarding the birth of Charlie, Lila and Nate for various reasons. Those omissions gave the impression that all four children were a product of the Barton marriage. Again, no one saw a reason to correct the hypotheses, wanting the spare the family from anyone prying into their affairs.

Charlie jumped up, and in the process, head bumped Clint in the stomach. “Dad look, there’s Logan!”

“Charlotte, sit down and don’t do that again.” Clint reprimanded after he did a sharp intake of air after the impact on his body. With everything going on, his stomach wasn’t doing the best and practically being punched by his daughter didn’t help with the problem.

“Clint.” The Wolverine acknowledged as he approached the man.

Offering his hand Clint replied, “Logan.” The two men were not by any means best friends, but they both had made an effort to at least be cordial to each other when they crossed paths. It was a rare occurrence, usually only whenever Clint dropped off or picked up Charlie from school.

Looking down the Charlie, “So, the pup has been telling me that you have been training her.”

Smiling at his daughter, forgetting the assault of five seconds ago in favor of fatherly pride. “Yeah, the girl is a natural.”

“I could have told you that, and I haven’t even seen what she can do.” Logan remarked to the father. When Charlie first told him, Logan was beyond pissed at Clint. He had gone straight to Kate and told her as much. Kate confided in him that she wasn’t any happier with it than Logan was. However, she wasn’t getting involved in the hopes of the activity fostering both a bond between Clint and Charlie and a feeling of safety for the girl now that she wasn’t a resident at the school anymore.

“Well, anytime you want to come by the compound and see her in action, you’re welcomed to. Give it a month or two and we might be ready for sparring.” Clint saw that Charlie was almost vibrating with excitement over the possibility of Logan coming to the compound and seeing her train.

“Sparring? Now that is something I would like to see.” There was no doubt in his mind the girl would be skilled. A person would just need to look at both parents to see the child had the genes for it, and she had always had the drive to learn. “Tell you what Clint, when you think she is ready for it, let me know. I’ll grab a higher student and we’ll see what the pup can do.”

Suddenly, the outbreak of applause and shouting from the crowd drowned out and ended all of the conversations taking place on the stage. Secret Service agents were directing people to take their seats and clearing the aisles for the ceremony to start. Clint reached towards Pepper to take back Nate and while doing so, faced the Capitol building and saw the reason. Professor Xavier, Kate and President Pugh had arrived on the platform. The first several rows of the crowd were students from the mutant school and adult mutants from around the world who had come to witness this monumental occasion. Them seeing the person they considered to be both their leader and messiah, Professor Charles Xavier, would be a cause to celebrate. At the time clapping and cheering was the most appropriate manner to show that respect for the man. Sitting in his assigned seat, Clint placed Nate in the empty place to his right. The Professor and Kate parted and took their own seats. Kate in the chair to Clint’s left at the end of the row, and the Professor on the opposite side in an empty spot to accommodate his wheelchair next to Scott Summer, who was the first seat in the row of X-Men participants.

“Good morning.” The President greeted when he took to the podium and addressed the audience. “This is a great day for our country. Today we honor and welcome to the administration the newest addition to the Cabinet. For too many years, the position of Secretary for the Department of Mutant Affairs has been empty. As a result of that, and events we have all seen within this country and internationally, a population of our own citizens has been left to feel ostracized, unrepresented, and rejected from American society. I pledged during my campaign that I would stride to make every single citizen feel that the government represented them. Today, I make good on that promise. Mrs. Barton are you ready to take the oath?”

Kate stood up as Clint grabbed her hand and squeezed it in support while the crowd cheered. He knew she was nervous. Who wouldn’t be in this environment? Hell, his stomach was all tied up in nerves and all he had to do was stand beside her. Waiting until Kate had gotten in front of the podium, Clint stood up and guided the children to their place behind her. Standing in front of the podium she stood across from the President. Tony and Pepper, as the nominee’s family were permitted to stand behind Kate also during this moment. Pepper reached into her purse and produced the item that Tony had trusted with her to keep safe until now. An item he had searched his father’s archives for days before finally finding. Taking the item from her, Tony handed it to Clint. It was a book, his mother’s bible. Exchanging Nate’s hand for the bible, Clint took it and stood between Kate and the world leader. Tony hadn’t seen Kate in person for weeks. They had of course texted, and occasionally spoken on the phone, but that was it. He didn’t hold it against her, she had been going between Washington and New York, working as the liaison between the government, United Nation, Avengers, and the X-Men to find some compromise on the Sokovia Accords. As her first order of business, she wanted an approved draft of the legislation from all invested parties ready to be finalized and put into play on her first day on the job. Any free time she had, which was sporadic, was spent at home with the children and her husband. Tony and Pepper had together hoped that when Kate accepted the job, Clint would decide to stay at the compound, if for no other reason than to lean on the assistance of family to help with the caretaking of four children. However, as he said he would, Clint found a house that matched his specifications and moved his family into it three weeks after they were all united at the compound. Wanda joined them soon after as the ‘fifth Barton child’ in everything but name.

The ‘fifth Barton child’, a funny notion since Tony knew what Kate hid under her navy coat that draped over the slimming black dress underneath. A secret that he came across when Hank asked for his opinion when he informed Tony that Kate’s drug protocol needed ‘some fine tuning to adjust for an unexpected occurrence’. While he believed that the therapy sessions were instrumental in the changes Tony had noticed in Clint, he knew the driving force was the second chance that the almost nonexistent rounding of Kate’s lower midsection promised. He would allow Kate and Clint to have their secret for a while longer, they deserved it. When they finally decide to announce it, which Tony calculated to be anytime now, he planned to act like a complete fool. He had already prepared how he would joke about Clint not taking him up on his offer of a free vasectomy, and how they were strategically bankrupting Tony by all the trust funds the billionaire had to set up for his grandchildren. He would do all of that while pushing down the excitement and almost overloading feeling of happiness at the concept of being with one of his grandchildren from day one of their life caused him. Tony didn’t have all the details of course, but he knew simple math, and the newest addition would arrive sometime around the one-year anniversary of the reversal, very poetic and fitting in his mind.

“Agent Barton please hold the bible out in front of your wife. Mrs. Barton please place your left hand on the bible and lift your right.” The President instructed, and the Bartons complied with the directions they were given. The purple of Kate’s engagement ring was a sharp contrast to the black leather binding of the Carbonell family bible it was place upon. As the cameras moved in closer, Tony hoped that someone got a shot of just her hand on the bible. He very much would like to get a copy for his own office at the compound.

“Repeat after me please. ‘I, Katherine Antonia Stark-Barton do solemnly swear.”

_“I, Katherine Antonia Stark-Barton do solemnly swear.”_

The rest of the oath was said, and Kate repeated as the phrases were given to her. _“That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”_

With the conclusion of the oath, the President offered his hand to the newest member of his administrative cabinet with, “Congratulations Madame Secretary.” The crowd erupted into cheer and fanfare. Cooper was probably the only Barton child who had a good grasp on what was happening and the importance of it all. The eldest stood there politely clapping next to Tony, while the other three were jumping up and down shouting along with the crowd. Pepper was now well practiced in the art of dealing with the younger Barton children. She showed her skills as she reigned them all in with just a look, ushering them back to their seats. Tony watched as Clint leaned in and kissed Kate on the cheek in congratulations. The President placed his hand on the small of Kate’s back and gestured towards the podium as a cue that it was her turn to speak.

The newly sworn in Secretary for the Department of Mutant Affairs stepped up to the stand and waited until the crowd returned to silence. This was to be the performance of her lifetime. She and her staff had worked towards this moment for months to perfect her inaugural address and set up a domino effect of events with it. “Thank you, Mister President. I want to start by thanking my family for their incredible support while we made this transition, especially my husband, Clint. While my priorities have been establishing the Department and acting as a liaison for the United Nations, his has been ensuring that our children were as unaffected as possible. There are numerous others including my father, his fiancé, the Avengers and staff and the Xavier school for gifted youngsters, and too many others to name in the time allowed. But you all know who you are and please know that I appreciate everything you have done for my family and myself. I know there were some reservations in the community about my appointment prior to my background becoming public knowledge. I am not a mutant. I am a wife, daughter, teacher, retired government special agent and my favorite and most precious role, a mother. I guess you could say, I’ve done it all.”

There was a polite laugh that echoed through the crowd. Tony had to agree she was correct, she had done it all. Professor Xavier said that the Secretary would have to have the complete trust of all parties involved. The mutants, the Avengers, the government and the people would all have to trust the person appointed. Tony wondered if while the Professor was telling him that, if the light bulb didn’t go off in the man’s head that the spot-on candidate for the job was in front of him for a decade. Kate was the only one who fit the bill perfectly. The mutants and Avengers trusted her without question. She had previously worked for the government, in a sense, and had an exceptional record. A record that appeared in the S.H.I.E.L.D. database once the wipe was undone. The citizens of America fell in love with her when they heard that she was a teacher and mother of four, one child who was a mutant herself. Surprisingly, the fact she was Tony Stark’s daughter didn’t really factor into her public image, just a footnote. It was the media who obsessed on it, the American people just liked her for who she was and what Kate stood for.

“I am not the type of person who makes promises. I have been on the receiving end of too many broken ones to subscribe to the power the concept is said to hold. I will say that I expect from my staff and myself to always conduct ourselves in the manner that best benefits the community we serve and strive for excellence. I aspire to guarantee that the mutant community has a seat at the table with public policy, feels represented, and receives their fair share. This is my overall goal not only because it is an American inalienable right afforded to every citizen, no matter who and what they are…” Another round of cheering started, and Kate stepped back a few inches to give the moment to the mutants. After around ten seconds, Kate readdressed her audience and continued, “but because as I previously stated, I am a mother. A parent’s job is to make the world a better place when they leave it than how they found it. My next remarks are directed at the general public. My chief concern over the past decade was protecting my daughter, Charlotte. Protecting her for no other reason than she was a mutant. I had to protect her because there were people with ill intent out there trying to get her, to use my child for their own malicious purposes. Her condition is the result of a horrible incident I suffered during my pregnancy in combination with her genetic makeup, a perfect storm of events. Charlotte has never had any control over what she is, no mutant has. She has never hurt anyone because she was raised with an understanding of right from wrong. As every child should be. My child struggled with her mutant powers early in life. I remember vividly the day she came into my classroom after school and told me that she had done something wrong on the playground and was shouted at by the other children. She asked me why she was the way she was.” Clint leaned forward, very interested in that statement. He hadn’t gone over or even read Kate’s speech ahead of time and was unaware of how personal she was going to speak. There was a feeling of impotence that he didn’t enjoy about learning about a traumatic moment in his child’s life along with thousands of strangers on the steps of the Senate and another few million people watching on television around the world. “I told her that she is who she is because the world needs her to be the way she is. That sometimes you get amazing results from horrible events. Due to those amazing results, she will do wonderful things for the world. I tell her this often because she needs to hear it, all people need to hear it. There is a negative perception associated with the terms ‘mutant’ and ‘enhanced’ and there are a variety of reasons for that. They range from jealousy over enhanced abilities to a less than pleasant encounter with a mutant. Simply put, the exact same reasons you didn’t like someone in high school. I have a good friend who gave me wonderful advice that I would like to share with you all today… ‘get over it’.”

A chant of ‘get over it’ started and Kate raised her hands to motion for them to quiet down so she could finish. Now it was time for the real show to start. Kate looked behind and to the right to where Steve Rogers was seated. “Captain Rogers, two years ago you and part of your team refused to sign the Sokovia Accords due to not agreeing with a majority of the verbiage, including the leadership and lack of control over where your team could and could not go to offer aide. You submitted your requested revisions of the Sokovia Accords to the Department of Mutant Affairs and United Nations once my nomination was confirmed by the Senate. It has taken some time but between all parties involved, everyone is satisfied and acceptant of the final draft of the new Accords. I am asking you to sign today as the Secretary of Mutant Affairs and the Chair of the Sokovia Accords for the United Nations. I have just been charged with being both protector and police to all that sign. I tell you this not to brag about my responsibilities and control over others like yourself Captain Rogers, but to make you aware of just how vested I am. If I do not do my job correctly, I am not only sabotaging your team, but the group that offered me refuge for ten years. If I fail, I am putting a target on my own child’s forehead. That being said, I hope you understand how serious I am taking this. Now I ask, do you trust me enough to sign?”

Steve stood up on his cue and walked to where Kate was at the podium while he buttoned his jacket up. During the transition between speakers, everyone in attendance applauded to both the completion of the inaugural address and the anticipation of whatever Captain America was about to say in response to the public request made to him from the new Secretary. The two politely embraced and switched places. As Steve prepared to approach the podium, Kate returned to her seat next to Clint. It was Steve’s turn to perform now, taking a deep breath and letting it out at a volume that was caught by the microphone. “Madam Secretary, Mister President, esteem colleagues and guests, thank you for this national platform to speak. That was my first problem with the original Sokovia Accords, the lack of a system to voice any disagreement or concerns I may have with the choices that were made regarding my team and myself. Secretary Barton, you mentioned in your speech that I had an issue with the leadership in the original version. That is correct, I took issue with the leadership, both domestically and internationally, because they were the same person. My team didn’t stand a chance of being treated fairly, due to a bias that an individual had towards members of my team.”

A lot of good things had occurred over the last six months, but the best for Steve was the stripping away of power and control that former Secretary Ross had. When Steve was informed the President had requested Thaddeus Ross’ resignation from the position of Secretary of State, he waited patiently to see what would happen next. It didn’t take long; the United Nations followed in step with Washington and dismissed Ross from the committee he chaired for the enforcement and overwatch of the Sokovia Accords. Any criminal charges against the man in relation to the shooting were dropped due to the influence that Thaddeus Ross still had within government circles. A factor that still concerned Steve when he thought about it too long. The last Steve heard, Ross was held up in Switzerland watching the shadows, believing them all to be a threat against him. Steve was a lot of things, but a fool wasn’t one of them. He knew the only reason Ross still breathed was because Kate took up the Secretarial offer. Clint wouldn’t do anything that would threaten his wife’s position or the future of Charlotte and killing Ross with his own bare hands had the potential disastrous consequences for both of his loved ones. While everyone else had brought the whole ‘Clint is a new man’ persona that he archer worked hard to present, Steve and Natasha had already had numerous conversations about how they would have to watch Barton closely after Kate finished her term and Charlie got older. They both knew all bets would be off for Clint then and Ross was as good as dead.

Pushing the problem from his mind of the past and future, Captain Steve Rogers focused on the present. “Today, the two levels of monitoring are still conducted by one person, but it is now a person I trust to always have the best interest of the human race in mind when making decisions, despite if they are a Homo sapien or a Homo sapien superior. We are all the human race, and Madam Secretary, I don’t think that there is anyone else walking God’s green earth that internalizes that methodology more than yourself. You just ask me for trust, you have it. You also have my respect, my friendship, my support, and my loyalty. Now you have my signature, of course I will sign.” With both the closing of his speech and the promise of a signature, the celebration started for everyone in attendance. The crowd roared their jubilation as everyone on the stage stood up and applauded. Steve’s face perfectly matched the red shade of his tie in response to the standing ovation.

Tony couldn’t help but roll his eyes at Kate and Steve’s performance. He just hoped the camera didn’t catch the gesture. It was doubtful since he was positive that all the attention, human and technical was still on Steve. The Captain was shaking hands with the President then trying to get back to his seat which was a row behind Tony. Of course, Steve would sign, between him and the X-Men, the entire legislation was redone to their demands. Kate supported everything they wanted, which meant the American government and United Nations did as well. Steve would actually be the first signature on the revised edition, and everyone else involved would follow suit and have to sign, even if they signed the original document. The next few weeks would consist of Kate traveling around in an effort to collect everyone’s signature and presenting it to the United Nations. When Kate told Tony about what would happen today, he didn’t see the point of having Steve speak. Then she imparted her wisdom onto her father. Steve’s was the important signature to get, it had to be public. It had to be public because the fallout over the original Accords was public. Everyone saw what happened when the Avengers fought over the Sokovia Accords. There wasn’t really a way to hide it, they did destroy a major airport in Germany during their ‘disagreement’. The world was forced to take sides, it was ‘Team Cap’ versus ‘Team Ironman’. Now, the world had just witnessed that they were now on the same team. Tony felt the knots in his body release at the assurance of the “Civil War” finally being over.

~~~

The lobby of the Department of Mutant Affairs had been decorated for the party held in honor of the new Secretary’s swearing in. In contrast to the ceremony that was mostly made of Senators and Representatives, this even had more familiar faces in attendance. Vision and Wanda were there, they didn’t want to attend the ceremony due to the fear that their presence would distract too much from the goals of the event. Sharon Carter had also arrived as Steve’s ‘plus one’. Unfortunately, Tony’s relationship with Steve wasn’t built back up to the point where he could inquire about the Captain’s love life.

Tony bumped into Peter Parker and his aunt May when he arrived at the party. He suspected the Peter had waited near the entrance for Tony, the teenager really didn’t know anyone else at the event. The Parkers were the only invitee request that Tony had made to Kate’s office. An invitation was even extended to Scott Lang, but he declined, sending his best wishes to Clint and his family.  Tony was sure that wasn’t Scott’s exact wording, but the gist of what he said to Kate’s people in a polite interpretation. There were numerous agents from S.H.I.E.L.D who had come to celebrate the success of their former coworker. There was plenty of people for Tony to take his pick of for company, but he went straight for his daughter, pulling Pepper along with him.

“Congratulations Madame Secretary.” He greeted after the person she was speaking with walked away.

With a tired smile Kate replied, “Thank you Tony. How did I do?” Looking around for any listeners, she spoke lower. “I need a truthful assessment about what I did today. Everyone is just repeating, ‘you did great’, ‘excellent job’, and ‘wonderful speech’. I need one honest voice in my ear.”

“Then why ask me?” He asked in jest and Pepper swatted him on his arm with her purse in response to his joke.

“Because I believe you may be a ‘genius billionaire playboy philanthropist to everyone else.” Kate put out there shaking her head side to side with each syllable. Then she relaxed and looked deep into Tony’s eyes, brown meeting blue, ensuring that the importance of her next statement was clear to him. “But to me, I need you to be my father. The one person who will always tell me the truth without fear of the effects it may have on my condition, or what my reaction may be.”

Curious that she would pick Tony over her own husband, who Pepper never thought to be deceiving or dishonest, she questioned, “Won’t Clint fill that role for you?”

“He won’t lie, but that doesn’t mean he will tell me the truth.” Kate said matter-of-factly, not giving away any feeling that she may or may not have in connection to the statement. “You know he hates that I am doing this. He rather I just stay teaching at the school, or better yet, stay at home.”

“I don’t hate your job.” Clint interrupted with annoyance thick in his voice as he joined the conversation with Nate by his side and Cooper following. All three of the Barton men looked to be bored out of their minds. “I would just prefer you not be such a ‘jetsetter’ and telecommute more.”

“I will, we discussed this.” Kate replied through clenched teeth and a fake smile, which gave their small audience the impression that this was a hot button topic of contention between the spouses. “I will be based out of D.C. for the next five months, then the compound.” Upon her appointment, Kate asked if she could work a majority of the time out of New York. It made sense for Kate to have an up-state office for meetings with the X-Men and Avengers. The Department of Mutant Affairs and Secret Service secured an area of the compound as a remote office for the Secretary’s use. Everyone was in agreement that the compound offered the most security for government business.

Tony tried with all his might to forge an innocent and naive tone, “What’s so important about five months from now that you feel the department will be able to handle affairs without you being in the building?”

“Not forever, it was always the plan that I would be based out of New York and commute to Washington as needed. The population I represent has their leaders based out of New York, and I need to be there.”

“Not going to give me a damn thing, are you?” Tony asked then looked to Clint with annoyance. “Either one of you, really?”

Clint understood the implication behind Stark’s words. He wondered if the Ironman figured it out himself, or by sneaking a peek at Kate’s medical file. However the method he found out, it wasn’t important, and Clint chided himself for thinking that they could keep the information to themselves without Kate’s father finding out. He couldn’t be mad at the man. The life he now cherished was all due to Stark’s inability to mind his own damn business. This was Kate’s day, there would be a day in the not too distant future when they would celebrate and announce their news. With that at the forefront of his mind, Clint confirmed with a grin, and at the same time delayed the conversation. “Not today Tony, not today.” That comment, at least for Clint, signaled the end to their conversation and directed Kate away.

_That’s not the beginning of the end_

_That’s the return to yourself_

_The return to innocence_

“Hey darlin’,” Tony called to his daughter. Recognizing and reacting to Tony’s pet name for her, Kate turned to face him. He decided to give her what she asked from him – one honest voice in her ear. “Laid it on a bit thick with the ‘mother of a mutant’ propaganda, but the point was made. You are there to protect them and will give them the ability to be heard. You did great, I would say an eight out of ten.”

Clint stared at Tony like he had just kicked Lucky across the room in front of his children. Kate in answer to the constructive criticism, broke away from Clint’s hold and returned to her father. Without prompt or warning, she hugged him tightly. Tony wrapped his arms around her and matched the strength, as he heard her whisper into his ear, “Thank you.”

_Love_

_Devotion_

_Feeling_

_Emotion_

Watching the family leave Tony asked Pepper in a deadpan tone, “Does this mean I won?”

“Tony stop it.” He knew she wasn’t upset; her voice was light with humor at his question. “Everyone won. Steve got the revisions he wanted, and you forgave him. The Avengers are together again to find and take out any leftover HYDRA personnel. The wipe was reversed, and now your daughter is a Secretary in the Presidential Cabinet.”

“Yeah,” Tony started as he held out both hands and lifted his left one higher than the right, “but if winning was on a scale of one being just ‘winning by not being an outlaw anymore and having a say in the revision of an international law’.” He alternated the hands, so the right was higher now. “And ten being, ‘I did all this, and my daughter is a Secretary in the Cabinet’. I would be a ten, right?” Dropping his hands, Tony observed, “That means I won more than anyone?”

“Yes. You won more than anyone.” Pepper agreed as she leaned in and kissed Tony on his lips. “I’m going to go mingle, want to come?”

_Love_

_Devotion_

_Feeling_

_Emotion_

“Not right this minute.” He answered her. “I think I need a moment to absorb what just happened.”

“Your daughter just became the Secretary of Mutant Affairs, that’s what just happened.”

“Yeah, she did.” Tony boasted. “But not just that. That is important, don’t get me wrong, but look how much our lives have changed in the last six months.”

“It’s been a ride, that’s for sure. And you know what?” She asked getting closer to him, so they were almost touching noses. “There is no one else I would want to be on the ride with. I don’t know if now is the right time or not, but you did promise me that when this was all over you would take me away.”

“I did, didn’t I.” He remembered with a sly playful smile to his fiancé. “Well, can’t be a liar, now can I?” Now that this,” Tony gestured to the room, “is all done, we can leave at any point. Just pick a date and place and we can go.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.” Pepper swore as she again kissed Tony and walked away to do her mingling.

_Don’t be afraid to be weak_

_Don’t be too proud to be strong_

_Just look into your heart my friend_

_That will be the return to yourself_

_The return to innocence_

Director Nick Fury, who was not at the ceremony approached Tony once he was alone. “A proud day?”

“Was wondering when you were going to show up. Didn’t see you on the stage.” Then he answered the question. “Yeah, a Stark in the White House. My father would have loved it.”

“Yeah, Howard would have.” He concurred. “Makes me feel old, you know? The little girl I was sent to recruit all those years ago from MIT on Carter’s orders standing up there being sworn in as a member of the Cabinet.”

Laughing as he grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing server, Tony countered. “Makes you feel old? How do you think I feel?”

Also taking a glass off the tray, Nick paused and observed the room. From the men’s vantage point of standing in the center of the far wall, they could see everything and everyone in the room. “Honestly Stark, if I had to guess, I would say that you are feeling pretty damn good right about now.”

_If you want, then start to laugh_

_If you must, then start to cry_

_Be yourself don’t hide_

_Just believe in destiny_

Nodding while he swallowed, “And you would be correct sir. Who the hell knew that when Romanoff and Rogers dumped all that data from S.H.I.E.L.D. onto the internet, that it would lead to this?”

“Well, of all the possibilities that were predicted after that event, and there were a lot, this was not one of them.” Looking out over the room once again, the S.H.I.E.L.D. director allowed a rare smile to appear on his face. “But I’m glad it did.”

“Me too.” Tony agreed following Nick’s gaze to Clint and Kate who had isolated themselves to a corner of the room. Probably for the purpose of allowing Kate to take a breather before she had to shake hands and pose for any more pictures. Cooper was nearby entertaining his younger brother. Tony and Pepper were taking the children back to the compound with them tonight so Clint and Kate could stay back and socialize with the party’s guests. Watching his grandsons, tony wondered if he should arrange an earlier departure before any of the kids acted out against the boredom. If Tony had to guess, a safe one would be that Clint made Kate distance herself from the party for a bit to reduce any stress the event was causing her. James Rhodes stood guard nearby, but not close enough to invade the privacy of the couple. Kate had selected Rhodey as her Deputy Secretary and received instant approval from the administration on her appointment of the Colonel. It was clear that Rhodey was taking his job seriously. Tony wouldn’t doubt that he knew of Kate’s secret and was being as cautious as Clint was to manage the work stress on the Secretary. Tony was just shocked in wonderment of everything that had occurred, the good and the bad since the ‘Civil War’. Here they all were in the same room, together and celebrating a common purpose. If he pretended hard enough, Tony could almost trick himself into believing that the whole thing had never happened, and they have always been together as a team without any breaks in their duration as the Avengers. “It seems like everyone was drowning and all of a sudden, we are able to fill our lungs up with enough air to get back to shore. If we do this the right way, we can get a fresh start. A second chance.”

_Don’t care what people say_

_Just follow your own way_

_Don’t give up and use the chance_

_The return to innocence_

“I get it, you are trying to revive your life. Not everyone gets the chance to hit the restart button. Don’t waste it.” Nick advised.

Tony heard what Fury told him, he would take the counsel to heart. This in fact wasn’t his second chance, that came after Afghanistan. This was a third chance, and he hoped that the old saying of ‘third time is the charm’ was true. There was however one word that struck him as odd. “What my life?”

Casually Nick repeated, still keeping his sight on the Secretary and her family. “Revive.”

Taking a pause in the conversation to collect his thoughts on why that particular word caught his attention. Tony searched his mind for the significance, then he remembered, “You know that was the code.”

“The code?” Nick questioned glancing at Stark.

“For the wipe, a code was installed to block any reversal attempt. It was six-characters, R-E-V-I-V-E, revive.”

_That’s not the beginning of the end_

_That’s the return to yourself_

_The return to innocence_

“Was it really?” He said in a way that Tony didn’t know if Nick was questioning it or being cynical because he already knew that information. “Well, Addams was always a little overdramatic if you ask me.”

“Who?” Nick made it appear that Tony knew who he was speaking about.

“Agent Doug Addams, system leader. He would have been the only one capable of initiating the wipe back then.” Nick had always been extremely cautious due to the wipe. The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. had to admit that seven years of lost memories did cause him some sleepless nights. HYDRA growing inside the halls of S.H.I.E.L.D. during the years that followed made him doubt himself more than once over the decade that followed. The relief the return of those memories brought him was unimaginable. The reversal and regaining of the memories also revealed the total cost that S.H.I.E.L.D. had paid. “Shot in the head for his troubles.”

“Who shot him?”

“The former head of the National Security Council, Alexander Pierce.” He knew he didn’t have to go into detail for Tony about the once Secretary of Defense who rose through the ranks to become the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. and chaired the Security Council. “The reversal unmasked security footage from the archives database of the systems room from when the wipe was ordered. We finally know how it went down and what happened. The wipe changed the world. It allowed HYDRA full access to S.H.I.E.L.D. The price we paid was high, it ended with a lot of good people gone.”

The room was suddenly filled with screaming. Looking towards the source, Tony was able to see it wasn’t anything world ending, which was always a possibility where ever he was. He found resisting a smile impossible when he saw that Charlie and Lila were running around with some other girls that Tony assumed were from the Xavier school. They were being chased around by some boys who had shrimp on the end of toothpicks. Nick and Tony watched as Lila and Charlie broke off from the group and hid behind Clint. Watching the entire family together, Tony thought back to an observation Clint made months ago about not regretting the wipe because it had brought him to his family. It may not have been what Clint planned but it was what he was given, and he was never going to regret it. At the time Tony had been insulted on behalf of Kate for her husband’s remarks, but as time went on, he was able to understand and even concur with it.

_Don’t care what people say_

_Follow just your own way_

_Follow just your own way_

_Don’t give up, don’t give up_

_To return, to return to innocence_

If the wipe never happened, would the HYDRA infiltration that caused Steve and Natasha to dump the data which had led to Tony’s search for Kate occurred? Without the S.H.I.E.L.D. files to play with, on his own would he had looked for her? He didn’t know the answers to those questions, and truthfully didn’t want to know, for fear of the answers. What he did know is that the wipe happened, the files were dumped, Tony did look for Kate and he had found her. He now had a family complete with four, soon to be five grandchildren. In a matter of months, he would have a wife. He couldn’t wish away the wipe, because it had directed him to this, and this was good.

Tony watched as Charlie danced about Clint’s legs as she avoided being ‘tagged’ by the shrimp. He could see from his position Clint pretending to be mad at his daughter. Even though Tony couldn’t hear anything, he knew Clint was telling both daughters to stop and act right. Tony predicted that the goals Clint was seeking were unattainable since Kate and Cooper were both laughing at the antics while Nate was trying to join in with his sisters. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Pepper weaving through the crowd to the family, his family. Those people were his family. Forging through his mind to find a response to Nick’s observation, Tony agreed using Kate’s speech as inspiration. “The wipe did change the world, but this world is good. This world is the amazing results from horrible events.

_If you want then laugh_

_If you must then cry_

_Be yourself don’t hide_

_Just believe in destiny_

_Return to Innocence by Enigma_

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who has read this story. Please let me know what your thoughts are about it and leave a comment.


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